More Than Just a Clanker (TCW)
by MarxistFIN
Summary: Through the collective work of several Techno Union engineers, what they praise as the perfect droid is created for the sole purpose of having it serve in the Confederacy's Droid Army in the coming war. But can one droid, no matter its quality... truly make a difference in a galaxy torn apart by war? Read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**More Than Just a Clanker**

**A/N: Hello my fellow readers, I am here with yet another story idea. I hope you enjoy what you'll find here as you read through my first attempt at a Star Wars fanfic.**

**I wrote this firstly as an attempt to portray the Droid army as an actual fighting force capable of challenging and possibly even defeating the Republic on every level instead of being a bunch of bumbling clowns that as one man on the Internet said, "are fooled by paper thin schemes."**

**Secondly because I find the lack of good Pro-Confederacy stories… disturbing.**

**And just because I feel like putting some of my ideas out there for people to use and enjoy.**

**I will attempt to follow at least some parts of the canon timeline but I can't really guarantee anything.**

**I'm not omniscient you know…**

**I also plan to have plot-shield as pretty much non-existant, so pretty much everyone except the MC can die at any point if I feel like killing them off.**

**No copyright infringement intended, the rights to Star Wars belong to Disney, I make no monetary gain by producing this story and yadayadayada…**

Chapter 1 – Its Alive!

_Booting up systems…_

_Main Power Core: Online_

_Optics: In progress…_

_Processor: Online_

_Motivator: Online_

_Main Droid Brain: Online_

_Locomotion Parts: Offline_

_Vocabulator: In progress…_

_Translator: In progress…_

_Shield Generator: Offline_

_Sensors: Online_

_Masculinity Programming: Online_

_Loading…_

_I… Am… Alive…_

That was the first thought of Superior Tactics Enforcer Droid 001, or ST-ED in short.

The fact he was the first and only model of his kind in existence made him feel very alone, especially since he couldn't even see yet, he felt like a small organic baby that was still just learning to walk.

'_Where am I? What is this place?' _He pondered to himself.

The only things he could sense around him was a single organic life form that was right next to his synthetic body, and that was only because his sensors were picking up sound vibrations in the air around it that matched those that organics made when they talked.

He couldn't cipher anything yet, his translator was still booting up so the only thing he could understand about what was going on at that moment was that someone was talking with someone else and he couldn't understand what was being said.

Vocabulator: Online

Translator: Online

"…My greatest creation as of yet, it will be far superior to any tactical droid my team and I have designed as of yet." Came the voice of which he thought belonged to his creator since he assumed when saying "creation" he meant ST-ED.

"I will resign my judgement until the test run has been completed, I hope for your sake that it is successful." The voice of another man said, this one was deeper in its pitch and fuzzy, possibly indicating it was coming from a holo-communicator.

_Locomotion Parts: In progress…_

"Of course my Lord, I will not disappoint you." The droid's assumed creator replied.

"See to it that you don't." The other man said, ending the call.

_Locomotion parts:____Online_

_Optics: Online_

The tactical droid suddenly rose up from the table and turned to look at his master, scanning his features.

'_Neimoidian Male, below average height, clothing consists of a lightly armored full body suit, analysis of files reveals identity as Bin Dok.'_

"Wait, you're not supposed to be up yet…" Dok uttered, slightly surprised, but his thoughts were interrupted as the sounds of weapon discharge going off outside of the room reached his ears.

"Oh no… they've finally come after us… quick! Hide!" He ushered the droid as he frantically searched for a blaster.

"Affirmative." ST-ED said and complied his request, scanning the room for a hiding place, finding it in a container that had previously housed scrapped droid parts and was now empty.

He folded into a smaller form to fit his synthetic form inside the container, after his creator had armed himself; he came in to close the container's lid.

"Just stay put and only come out when you feel safe to do so."

There were footsteps closing in on the entrance.

"Aren't you going to hide, master Dok? It would improve your chances of survival by 41.89 perc…" The droid said after analyzing the current situation before getting cut off by his creator.

"My lifelong dream has always been to develop the perfect droid, if sacrificing myself makes sure that you survive, I will have done my job." He replied in a sombre tone, offering a sad smile.

There were a few bump sounds being made, as the clone troopers outside in the hallway placed breaching charges on the door.

"The only thing I need you to do after I'm gone is to remember your purpose. To serve the Confederacy the best you can, and survive the coming war."

"Goodbye, ST-ED." He said as he tapped the droid lightly on the head with the palm of his hand and pushed close the lid of the container, just before the lab door was blown inwards.

"Drop your weapon! Now!" The lead clone said as both parties brought up their blasters.

"You'll never take me alive Republic scum!" Dok yelled as he fired his holdout blaster at the nearest Republic trooper, scoring a single hit in his chest that caused the clone to stumble back, but his armor saved him from any serious injuries.

In response all of the clones fired their weapons at the Neimoidian engineer and with no orders to tell them otherwise, they shot to kill.

Dok screamed, as he was pumped full of blaster bolts and after a few seconds of continuous fire, he fell to the ground as nothing but a smoking heap of cooked flesh and bone.

"All clear, sir." One of the clones informed the NCO in charge of the squad.

"Affirmative, do a quick sweep of the place and we'll move into the next room."

"Yes, Sir!" All the other clones replied as they went to carry out their orders.

By now the droid had complied with his master's last request and shut own all of his non-critical systems so the Republic's scanners couldn't pick him out amongst the other scrapped droids.

"There's nothing here, Sir. This place is dead as can be."

"All right, let's move onto the next room." The clone officer said as the squad of clones left the laboratory of the deceased Neimoidian engineer to engage further hostile targets.

_Rebooting…_

_Activating additional functions…_

_Shield Generator: Online_

_All systems active and functioning…_

After coming into the conclusion that the Republic troops had left, ST-ED exited his hiding place to see the mess that his master's laboratory was in its current state.

Soon enough he spotted his master's burnt corpse, and after analyzing his remains concluded that he was most likely dead.

_New Objective: Rendezvous With CIS Forces._

After assigning himself an objective, ST-ED proceeded to search his master's corpse for any weaponry to protect his own existence from those who would want to snuff it out.

As quiet as possible, he checked the hallway outside the door and after finding it clear of hostiles, stepping out of the room and beginning to find his way around the facility, having downloaded the complete layout of the research complex.

_Loading Data…_

_Download complete._

_Displaying map of: CIS Research Facility A9100, Geonosis_

_New Sub-objective: Avoid Republic Forces and Reach The Exit Successfully._

Within microseconds of analyzing the map, the tactical droid had already come up with an escape plan.

He sneaked carefully through the hallways and past several Geonosian worker's corpses alongside the remains of several battle droids until he finally came across the first ventilation shaft panel that he could use to get around undetected.

He picked up a single E-5 Blaster rifle from one of the B1's for additional fire power before he used the boosters in his legs to reach the ventilation shaft, removing its cover.

_Alert: Incoming enemy patrol_

Motivated by his need for self-preservation, the droid clumsily climbed inside the ventilation shaft and placed the cover back in its place, just as the clone troopers jogged past his position.

'_That was close.'_

Quietly crawling through the ventilation shaft on a pre-determined path, the droid kept crawling past more Republic patrols that had already completely overrun the facility.

But with his superior intelligence and tactical mind, the droid was able to avoid confrontation with the GAR patrols and reach the exit.

Once outside he could see the utter devastation that had been unleashed on the planet by the Grand Army of The Republic.

Geonosian home nests completely destroyed by enemy gunships and bombers, droid production facilities blown up by orbital bombardment.

Since he was a droid that had yet to fully form a personality he didn't really have an emotion to respond to the event that it was currently observing take place.

"Sir, look! Over there!" A shout came from behind him; it was one of the white armored clone troopers.

And he was pointing towards ST-ED.

"Blast that droid!" The red coloured clone sergeant shouted as all the troopers in the squad raised their weapons to fire.

The droid took that as his sign to leave the scene, using the built in propulsion system at the bottom part of his synthetic body, he took into the air as fast as he could as the blaster bolts came in uncomfortably close to hitting him, some even managing to glance his shields.

While in the air, he turned around to return fire with the E-5 he had picked up from one of the battle droid husks, the inaccurate standard-issue blaster rifle was infamous for missing most of its shots even in the most experienced of hands but luck seemed to be on ST-ED's side as he was able to score a single hit in the chest of the clone NCO, the powerful shot that the overpowered blaster produced ensured the man went down for good.

As the lifeless corpse of the clone sergeant hit the ground, the blaster fire also soon began to diminish, allowing the tactical droid to get away with no trouble.

_Sub-objective Completed: Avoid Republic Forces and Reach The Exit Successfully_

Soon enough though, he had to land on the ground to save his energy reserves if his travel proved to be longer than his processes had calculated. It also proved easier to conceal himself amongst the rocks and hide from republic armoured columns than it would have been had he been airborne.

Even as he hid amongst the rocks, he used his advanced sensors listen in on the comm. chatter of the passing hostile vehicles.

"General, the enemy defences are way too tough, we won't be able to break through with our current numbers, we need more men! Some air support would be good as well, the enemy artillery is constantly hitting our position and we've nearly lost all of our gunships to their fighters." The clone at the other end shouted amongst the sounds of blaster fire.

"We copy you. Help is on the way, just hang on out there."

"Yes, Sir! Out!"

"Supply convoy heading towards 5th legion, how copy?"

"Solid copy, sir. We're already expecting you."

"Good, be ready when we arrive, we have lot of things that require unpacking."

And the reports kept coming in constantly; he processed through all of them. Producing a data package to be given to friendly forces when he met them.

To ST-ED it seemed like the battle was going fairly well for the Confederacy, but that was just a single unit, for all he knew he may well be on the losing side of the fight for Geonosis.

Now his superior tactical mind was needed more than ever, he had to reach the nearest outpost of the Droid army quickly; otherwise the battle might be lost before it even fully began.

After the last of the GAR troops had went past him, he exited his hiding place and after surveying the map, decided that he would have to go east, where the map designated that one of the many droid garrisons had been posted at prior to the battle.

It was currently his best bet, he didn't rate his chances high that he would find any help there but it was the only base within a hundred kilometres and he had to at least try.

So he began his long trek to safety, avoiding enemy forces where he could and escaping from any firefights that did occur relatively unscathed, unfortunately a few blaster bolts did manage to deplete his shields that with each recharge drained more of his vital energy reserves.

After hours of walking through the desolate landscape and even through a sandstorm, the tactical droid was able to reach safety as he saw the gates of the military base he had been looking for.

"Help…me…!" He yelled as loud as he could as he felt his energy reserves running out.

The two B1 battle droids guarding the gates were surprised to see the unfamiliar tactical droid stumbling through the howling storm of dust particles

_Objective Complete: Rendevouz With CIS Forces_

_Main power reserves depleted…_

_Secondary power reserves depleted…_

_Systems Shutting Down…_

Having run out of any reserve energy to run on and shut down, ST-ED's body simply lay on the dusty ground as the two battle droids were deciding what to do with him.

"What should we do?"

"We'll take him to the commander she'll decide."

"But we'll have to abandon our post to do so, we'll be in trouble."

"The commander will understand and besides, its not like the Republic will try anything in this storm."

"Roger, roger."

With that last acknowledgment they finished their conversation and began dragging the lifeless body of the tactical droid inside the base.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**CIS Military Complex A-15**

**Command &amp; Control Centre**

General Sev'rance Tann had just finished a call with Count Dooku about getting him off world as the tide of the battle began turning increasingly against the Confederacy's forces, when two of the B1 droids under her command came inside the room, dragging a single large droid behind them.

"What is that?" She asked the droids with disinterest, as she got ready to leave the base behind and clear a path through the Republic lines for her master and the rest of the Separatist leadership.

"We don't know, sir… uhh, ma'am."

"We found it outside in the sandstorm and it had Confederate markings so we figured it was one of our own."

"So we brought it here so you could decide what to do with it."

The Chiss general observed the motionless husk of the tactical droid; it was not like anything she had seen yet. Its legs reminded her of the B1's but the upper body was more bulky than any of the battle droid models.

'Seems like a prototype of some sort, but not for a battle droid from the looks of it… I wonder where it came from.' She thought while eyeing out the droid and attempting to decipher its possible purpose or use.

"Hook it up and let's see what this thing has to say."

"Roger, roger." The droids said as they connected a single cord from one of the consoles in the command centre into the head of ST-ED.

And with a single jolt the droid that had spent the last quarter of an hour shut down, was powered up again all systems rapidly coming online again.

_Booting up…_

_Loading…_

_Critical Systems: Online_

_Non-critical Systems: Online_

ST-ED stood up slowly, with the two B1's looking at him dumbly while Tann simply waited for him to do something.

_Targets identified:_

_General Sev'rance Tann, Female, Chiss _

_Two model B1 Battle droids, standard colouring and armament._

_Affiliation: Confederacy of Independent Systems military_

_Assumed friendly until further analysis._

"What is your designation and currently assigned mission, droid."

"Superior Tactics Enforcer Droid -001 or ST-ED as my creators called me. I was built by the engineers of the Techno Union Research and Development Wing to serve the Confederacy of Independent Systems to the best of my capabilities."

Tann gave a slight grin at that little piece of information.

"Good… then I might have some use for you, come we must make haste." She said, gesturing for all three of the droids to follow her, which they did without question.

"Count Dooku has given us orders to clear a path for evacuation through the canyons located to the north-east not far from here." She explained, ST-ED soaking up all the information that was given to him.

They walked through the hallways of the military complex with a slightly hurried pace, reaching the exit in a matter of minutes.

Outside were gathered hundreds of battle droids and droid piloted vehicles, all ready to march on the General's orders.

ST-ED had information about all the current vehicles and droid models in service in the Confederate military downloaded into his memory core while he was still being built, so he knew the strengths and weaknesses of each of them inside out.

But even with all the tactical information inside his brain and with all his superior intelligence, he had yet to experience an actual full-scale battle outside of simulations with pirate raids.

All that would soon chance as Sev'rance ordered her army to be ready to move out and clear out the path that had been designated by Dooku, so it would be ready for when he had to leave alongside the rest of the Separatist council.

"ST-ED."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Take a squad of droids with you and scout out ahead. It'll help us avoid any enemy forces that might have laid an ambush along the path. Be quick, Count Dooku expects the road to be clear when he arrives." She ordered him.

"Affirmative." The tactical droid replied "And General." He said to the Chiss who turned to look towards him again "Before I arrived here I was able to gather information about the Republic's movements in the nearby area by listening in to their communications, I think you'll find the information most useful." He said before sending the data package he compiled during his trip to the base.

The dark acolyte went through the information quickly, a look of surprise appearing on her face briefly before being replaced by a look of determination.

"This information is sure to help our forces tremendously with managing the evacuation, you have done well." She said. "But, we must hurry if we are to clear a path through those canyons, we are on a tight schedule." She said before climbing on top of one of the Armored Assault Tanks as it sped up.

ST-ED took that as his que to leave and go find himself a squad of droids that would help him with the task of providing recon.

"You, come with me. We will provide forward recon for the rest of our forces." ST-ED informed a group of battle droids that looked at each other for a moment.

"Uhh… us, Sir?" They said pointing at themselves.

"Affirmative."

"Roger, roger." The droids replied without further queries as the group began marching out of the front gate.

That was until one of them had the bright idea to open their mouths to strike conversation with the other droids

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**½ hour later**

ST-ED was getting annoyed with the inferior battle droids and their antics; they were unable to keep their vocabulators muted and constantly kept talking about things completely unrelated to the mission.

And now they had begun humming some kind of marching song.

He finally had enough.

"Shut your vocabulators already!" He shouted at the three droids following in his wake, stopping the marching droids right where they stood.

"We're supposed to be on a scouting mission! I want all of you to stay quiet before you give away our position to every single Republic trooper out there!"

"Roger, roger…" The B1s replied disappointedly as they continued the rest of their march in silence.

Almost immediately the tactical droid ordered them to halt with a gesture of his hand followed by a wireless command through the local droid network.

"What is it, Sir?" One of the B1s asked.

"Enemy forces set up on both sides of the canyon right up ahead."

"Report our findings to General Tann. She needs to know about this before our forces walk straight into a trap." The tactical droid ordered the khaki coloured droids while he continued observing the enemy movements.

"Roger, roger."

But as the droids tried to send a message through the network, only static could be heard.

"We can't reach them, the Republic is jamming our communications."

"Then one of you must act as a messenger and inform them of what lies ahead." He said to the other droids before pointing at one of them. "You will go."

"Roger, roger." The droid replied as it began to walk back towards the direction the main Confederate force were last known to be stationed at.

"As for the rest of you, we will harass the enemy and draw their attention away from General Tann's forces."

"But sir, we're impossibly outnumbered." One of them pointed out.

"It doesn't matter, the enemy can't hit us if they can't see us."

"What do you mean, Sir?"

"You'll see." ST-ED said as he went to grab one of the B1s.

"Hey what are you… Whoooaaaaah!" The droid yelled in surprise as it was thrown on top of the canyon walls where it audibly collided with the rocky ground.

Everyone was quiet for a moment before the droid that had been thrown stood up and waved at the rest of the group from on top of the canyon.

"I'm fine!" It yelled with its squeaky voice.

ST-ED simply nodded in response. Because he wasn't able to contact anyone through the droid network, so he had to use his vocabulator and gestures to communicate with his squad.

"You're next." He said pointing to the next droid, everyone else around it quickly backed off.

He then grabbed it in his large and powerful arms.

"I can flyyyyyy!" The droid yelled almost comically as it was thrown very much the same way as the one before it.

This routine went on until all of the droids were on top of the canyon edge.

All except for ST-ED.

"Uhh, Sir? How are you going to get up here?" One of the battle droid assassins asked its commander.

ST-ED didn't answer; he simply fired up the boosters in his legs and jumped onto the ledge on his own.

Landing onto the hard ground he did one of the few meaningless things he had observed organics do in simulations when they were idling about, he brushed small amounts of sand off his shoulders and chest plates that had stuck on from the small dust cloud he made when he landed.

He then looked towards the group of droids that had been staring at him dumbly the whole time "Well, what are you looking at? Get moving!" He ordered the group of B1s; they quickly scrambled to obey and took formation again before marching after their leader.

The small combat group of droids marched onward on top of the ledge and out of the sight of the Republic positions stationed down in the canyon, wary of any trouble that may come their way.

Only opposition they came across though were a few small patrols of clones that were quickly dispatched with a series of headshots, courtesy to the small droid group's two crackshots.

Surprisingly enough, they weren't spotted at any point, even after eliminating multiple clone patrols that had been on the lookout along the ledge.

To ST-ED it seemed like a trap but he dismissed as just being his overanalyzing droid brain malfunctioning.

After a while, they reached a spot where they got a good look of the Republic's main ambush position, there were dozens of regular troopers alongside heavy walkers like All Terrain Tactical Enforcers.

They couldn't possibly hope to outmatch the heavy vehicles; they weren't exactly carrying heavy weapons like rocket launchers.

But what they did have were several V-1 thermal detonators to cause chaos amongst the republic's ranks. It also helped that they had two snipers with them to take out any officers in sight.

"You two set up behind those rocks and be ready to fire on my signal." He ordered assassin battle droid pair, pointing towards a large formation of rocks that was sitting on top of the canyon edge. It gave the two sharpshooters a good vantage point to take out high priority targets.

"The rest of you, prepare your thermal detonators." He said, while dropping into a prone position right at the edge of canyon wall where the rest of the battle droids with their detonators soon joined him.

"We're in position and ready to fire on your mark, sir." One of the assassins whispered.

"Affirmative, target the coloured troopers, they are officers and high-priority targets." He ordered just as quietly, and the reply came in the form of a scream from one of the yellow-colored clone captains falling down with a blaster-sized hole in his chest.

The rest of the clones immediately became alert, having not expected getting shot first.

"Now! Let them have it!" He whispered loudly, all of the nine other battle droids complied an threw their thermal detonators into the mass of clones that had been set up in a neat line across the two barricades set to block any enemy vehicles from coming through.

"Take cov-!" One of the clone troopers yelled before being cut off by the multiple thermal detonators that went off all across the Republic line and swept the area near him of nearly all life.

"For the Confederacy! Charge!" The tactical droid yelled as he jumped down to the canyon's bottom, followed by the other nine regular battle droids.

As the two assassins kept eliminating the GAR's chain of command, the rest of the droids began their surprise attack that left the Clones completely baffled and unable to mount a good defence.

"Give me one of your detonators!" ST-ED yelled to the nearest B1, who tossed him a single V-1 that he magnetically secured on his waistline.

Jumping on top of the first AT-TE he first shot the gunner off the main cannon before taking control of it himself and turning the large weapon towards the second AT-TE that was attempting to blast the two sharpshooters still stationed on top of the canyon wall.

"Burn, Republic scum." He muttered as he fired the powerful main gun straight at the other walker's mid section, blowing the whole vehicle in half and killing the entire crew along with it.

He then jumped off his own gun and opened the top hatch of the walker he was standing on, arming the detonator he threw it inside the space between the passenger area and cockpit before closing the lid and jumping off the vehicle as fast as he could.

Soon after an explosion that was multiplied by the cramped space inside the walker went off, taking the entire walker out-of-action for good.

Looking around he could see that without his lead the droids weren't doing that good since the surviving clone troopers were already regrouping and closing in on them. By now three of the original nine were down for the count.

And from the looks of it, the situation was becoming even worse with GAR reinforcements coming in the form of three AT-RT walkers supported infantry, the group was being led by a single Jedi.

Things did not seem good for the droid squad who had no way to counter the agile walkers not to mention a Jedi armed with a lightsaber.

So ST-ED opted to simply fight off the Republic's infantry as long as he could before General Tann could make her way to them with the rest of their fighting force.

He gripped his E-5 blaster tightly before charging towards the clone formation attacking the rest of his squad.

Shields flaring and almost depleted he managed to score multiple hits, taking down at least ten clone troopers before his shields were depleted, even then he kept firing his weapon that became increasingly overheated and finally had its barrel melted to nothing but smoking pulp of metal.

Throwing away his useless blaster rifle he took out the underpowered hold-out blaster that his master had used and kept up with the rapid fire even as his droid body was being torn to pieces by multiple clone troopers firing at him, he finally succumbed to the damage when his head was cut clean off by the lightsaber-wielding Jedi's blade.

As his head flew through the air, it was still able to observe the rapidly approaching Confederate column of droids and vehicles in the distance and save the image into its databanks before running out of back-up power.

Even after their commander had shut down the remaining battle droids of the recon squad fought on, before they too were cut down by the Jedi's blade.

The two remaining battle droid assassins stationed on higher ground opted to retreat after completing their objective of crippling the chain of command of the Republic's ambush force.

Having no chain of command to speak off outside of an inexperienced Jedi commander, the clones soon fell into disarray; unable to mount a proper defence without any anti-tank support since the tactical droid's squad had destroyed all but the lightest of their vehicles in the previous surprise attack.

As the GAR's remnants engaged with their droid counterparts, Sev'rance briefly locked blades with the Jedi leading the enemy force.

"Your technique is quite sloppy, padawan. It's almost like you're not trying."

Her opponent didn't answer he was too busy concentrating all of his efforts in attempting to counter her powerful attacks.

"A pity I'm on a schedule it would have been nice to continue our little fight," Tann said as she finally broke through her opponents defence after he made a wide slash that completely missed her. "Say good night, Jedi." She said as her blade impaled her opponent through his chest, making the man drop his lightsaber and fall limply to the ground.

After the battle was over, Tann went to look for the remains of ST-ED finding only the headless husk that was still gripping the hold-out blaster that he was using before being given an early decommission through getting his head separated from his body.

"Find the head, we're not leaving this one here." She ordered the other droids who got off their marching positions and went to look for the tactical droid's head amongst the wreckage of the Republic vehicles and corpses of the deceased clones.

"I found something!" One of the B1s shouted from behind the collapsed AT-TE, Sev'rance walked over to see the battle droid holding what remained of the head of the former tactical droid.

"Good, let's clear out the rest of the Republic forces that may lie ahead, Count Dooku is still expecting us to clear the path for evacuation." The Chiss general said as she took the damaged droid head from the hands of the lonely battle droid.

'I can see uses for you in the future...' She thought as she looked at the droid head in her hands while the rest of the body was being loaded onto the supply flatbed being towed behind one of the AATs.

'Yes… lots of uses…'

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Some Time Later**

**Lucrehulk-Class Modified Droid Control Ship**

**18****th**** Fleet**

**CNV Bucket o' Bolts**

**In Hyperspace Travelling Towards The CIS Supply Station in orbit of Raxus Prime for Refuelling and Rearmament**

_Systems booting up…_

_Scanning… Scanning…_

_Current location determined as: non-hostile._

_Main power supply fully charged._

_Resuming standard functions…_

ST-ED Turned on his optics to observe the environment around him, he was inside a droid workshop of sorts, which had lots of spare parts for all kinds of different droids but mainly battle-droids.

He jerked his head down to see that he was in decent condition himself, his joints had been cleaned of all the dust that had stuck on his droid body back on Geonosis, it had somewhat been hindering his movement but he managed, it felt good to move more freely again.

As he was looking around at his surroundings the door on the far side of the room slid open and in stepped a pair of the B1 battle-droids.

"The commander requests your presence on the bridge, come with us." The squeaky voice of the right one's vocabulator commanded.

"Affirmative." The tactical droid acknowledged as he got off the operating table and followed in the two thinner droid's wake.

Using the two optical sensors in its "eyes" the tactical droid observed the overall design of the ship and determined it to be one of the old Lucrehulk freighters used in the past by the Trade Federation.

_Changes in hull suggest possible combat modifications._

_Assuming combat role until further analysis…_

The three droids passed by many patrols of both regular and super battle-droids before they finally reached the elevator that would take them to the bridge and face-to-face with the vessel's commanding officer.

There he could possibly get some answers.

In the elevator they were packed like sardines in a can alongside a full patrol of other B1's and a single yellow-painted command battle-droid.

It was a good thing droids had no concept of personal space; otherwise the ride could have been more uncomfortable than it already was.

The patrol dropped off on the upper deck that came right before the bridge and the three other droids continued their trip unhindered.

ST-ED found it surprising that the two droids had yet to utter a single word during their whole trip to the bridge, his databanks had indicated that B1s had the unfortunate tendency to be quite chatty when out of battle and sometimes even during battles much to the frustration of their commanders.

He would know, he had observed that defective function first hand.

He considered it a good thing they weren't that talkative though; ST-ED's programming was not very good when it came to social interaction outside of ordering troops in combat, that one he would have to practice later on.

His line of thought was cut off as the bridge doors opened, inside was a human Confederate naval officer who was conversing with a green and purple T-series tactical droid through the holo-communications transmitter. The rest of the bridge crew consisted mainly of OOM-series pilot droids that were operating the various consoles.

Both the droid and grey uniformed human turned to look towards the trio that had just stepped into the bridge through the door.

"You two, leave us here." The human said, gesturing to the two battle-droids

"Roger, roger." The pair said in unison as they disappeared into the elevator and removed themselves from the bridge.

There was a moment of silence between the two parties; the main event though was the staring contest going between the two tactical droids who if it had been possible would have glared at each other like the fiercest of rivals.

"So… judging from the information we got from your databanks and from General Tann's report… I assume you are the droid who goes by the designation ST-ED-001." The nameless organic officer said in a curious tone.

"Yes sir." The droid responded in his dull, synthesized voice.

"I am Admiral Lorn Halcorr and this is my advisor and second-in-command tactical droid TD-42." He gestured to the tactical droid, which nodded in response. "You're onboard the Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship "Bucket o' Bolts", the flagship of the Confederate Navy's 18th fleet."

"Where are we going, sir?" ST-ED asked.

"To Raxus Prime for a resupply run after that we are heading straight back to battle." The other tactical droid that was onboard one of the fleet's Recusant-class light destroyers answered matter-of-factly.

"Sir, we have arrived!" One of the OOM-series pilot droids operating the consoles informed the trio of commanders as the ship came out of hyperspace alongside the rest of the fleet.

Only to find a Republic fleet already waiting them in orbit around the planet…

"The Republic is already here! Raise shields and warm up the guns! He yelled. "Open channel with the rest of the fleet! All ships, prepare for battle!" Lorn gave his orders to the rest of the droid fleet as his own ship's console operators got to work.

"ST-ED, you are a tactical droid, yes?"

"That is correct, admiral."

"Is your programming also suited for space combat?"

"I am proficient in commanding in both space and ground operations."

"Good, I'm giving you control of the three Munificents and their fighter an bomber compliments at the back of our fleet. I want to see if you are of any use without endangering the rest of the fleet." The human officer said pointing his finger to where the ships were. "Now go and do some damage."

"I will not disappoint you, my programming is superior to any tactical droid that has yet been built." The droid replied in a smug tone, infuriating his T-series counterpart somewhat with his attitude.

"We'll see." TD-42 said before cutting off the feed from the other end.

Saluting his new commanding officer, ST-ED walked over to the elevator and headed straight to the ship's hangar deck.

While searching for a transport, he could see the vulture droids alongside their bomber counterparts already taking off from their racks in the ceiling and heading straight into battle at full speed.

While scanning the hangar bay with his sensors he came across something that resembled what looked like a civilian freighter, an odd sight onboard a military ship for certain.

He wasted no time getting onboard the small vessel and after familiarizing himself with the controls, taking off alongside the droid starfighters.

Separating himself from the droid swarm that began engaging the Republic's V-19 Torrents, he headed straight towards the designated three Munificent-class star frigates at the very back of the separatist fleet.

The crappy old freighter's failing engines that seemed to go at a snail's pace at their best hindered his trip though and it took a while to reach the vicinity of the front-most ship at which point he was already being hailed by the droid crew through the cockpit's holocomm.

"Unknown vessel, identify yourself or be fired upon." The yellow battle droid commander in charge of the vessel ordered through the fuzzy image.

"This is tactical droid ST-ED with orders from Admiral Halcorr to assume command of the ship." He answered.

"Hold on..." The commander droid at the other end said as it looked at something off the screen. "We have just received confirmation of the order from the admiral, lowering the hangar bay shield for your arrival now. Welcome aboard, sir." The yellow painted droid said as the feed cut off and the hangar bay shield dissipated.

ST-ED masterfully guided his temporary form of transport to the small hangar bay, landing onto the hard deck without a hitch.

The size of the hangar bay on the frigates had mainly been limited since it was only meant to house the landing craft and vehicles used for the ground operations while the fighters and bombers were kept on the docking rings located in the wings of the frigate's middle section while out of combat.

After getting inside the ship proper, he headed straight towards the bridge, passing by several turbolaser batteries as the droid crew was preparing them for battle.

Arriving on the bridge, he was immediately greeted by the droid commander in charge.

"We're ready for your orders, sir."

The tactical droid put his hands behind his back in anticipation as the fleet came nearer to the hostile fleet every moment, another trait picked up from organics.

"Order our battle group to make a short hyper space jump to the far side of the Raxus Prime so we can hit the Republic fleet in their exposed flank." ST-ED ordered, the droids looked at each other in confusion.

"Sir, calculating that kind of a jump is extremely risky and will take a long time to complete."

"No, it won't." The tactical droid said as it hooked itself into one of the consoles and did a short calculation with his significantly more advanced processors and droid brain.

"Calculations complete. Proceed with the jump to hyperspace." The tactical droid said as the pilot droids looked at their consoles for a while before preparing the ship for jump to lightspeed.

After detaching themselves from the rest of the fleet formation and sending the calculus to the two other Munificents, the three ships made the risky jump and actually made it to the other side of the planet in one piece.

"Divert power to the engines and forward shields, head straight through the debris field and to the exposed flank of the Republic fleet." The newly christened droid officer of the Confederate navy ordered in an authoritative tone, pointing his finger towards their intended target for good measure.

"Roger, roger." The droid crew answered flatly.

Boosting their speed, the frigate trio continued to head through the debris field, not really caring about their shields being slightly depleted from the occasional impact caused by ship debris of variable size.

Going through the field of wrecked ships in addition to being faster gave them the advantage of being harder to spot for Republic sensors, giving them an element of surprise when they finally struck.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"I've got fighters on my six! I could use some help!" Clone pilot CP-100359, nicknamed "Kess" by his Selkath Jedi commander, shouted into his comm. unit while being chased down by a pair of vulture droids.

"I've got your back." His wingman CP-100962 "Bagger" responded while firing two shorts bursts from his fighter's main weapons, downing both of the vultures before they could seriously damage his comrade's fighter.

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"More than one, stay focused. The clankers are coming around for another pass." Bagger said as the republic fighters got into formation again to face the swarm of droid fighters.

The space over the junk planet lit up for a moment in a spectacular fireshow as the two masses of space-superiority fighters collided with each other guns blazing.

Kess held down the firing trigger on his fighter's control stick, taking down multiple vultures in front of him while his buddies made sure none of them made their way behind him.

The battle between the two fighter-groups seemed to be increasingly headed towards Republic's favor, that was until a call came in from the main fleet.

"A group of enemy ships has gotten behind us, they are decimating our flank's defences! We need immediate fighter support! Oh no… Look ou-!" One of the ensigns onboard the Venator-class star destroyer "Judgement" shouted a warning into the comms before a pair of hyena bombers destroyed the twin bridge towers with their proton torpedoes.

"Judgement is dead in the water…" Bagger exclaimed in shock as he and Kess observed the ship that had housed them since the beginning of the war get decimated by concentrated turbolaser fire before its engines went critical and the ship was torn to pieces alongside many of their clone brethren onboard.

The attack had come so unexpectedly that none of the escape pods even had time to launch, as a result thousands of clones and natural-born organic personnel vanished alongside their ship.

Some of the clone fighters quickly broke formation to go help the fleet that was now being fired upon from two directions and was by all accounts rapidly being surrounded.

But as fate would have it, some of the vultures that were engaged in the dogfight also broke off to go after the Republic fighters and join the other vultures launched from Separatist frigate trio in protecting the bombers so they could do as much damage as possible to the remains of the Republic fleet.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Onboard the Republic Fleet's Venator-class Flagship "Unifier"**

**Under The Command of Jedi General Erus Kieol**

"Sir, we've lost contact with the Carnage! Our shields are at twenty-six percent! Bombers incoming on our right!" Were just a few of the reports being constantly shouted by the clones operating the consoles to the inexperienced Jedi commander.

Erus had not been prepared for the role of commanding ships not to mention fleets, he had mainly studied to become a healer during his time as a padawan in the temple, and suddenly being thrust into command of an entire invasion fleet to conquer a planet from the Separatists was not something he had expected to do when the war had begun.

And now it was starting to become costly for his men who were being killed both on the ground and in space constantly more and more each moment.

"Our shields are down! Enemy has just disabled our engines, we are crippled!"

He was in a moment of shock as he listened the increasingly distressing reports coming in before snapping out of it and resuming command.

"The space battle is lost all ships that can retreat back to Republic space and those that can't abandon ship and head for the surface." He ordered with a sombre tone.

"Yes, sir…" His clone assistant said as the evacuation order was sounded and everyone headed towards the escape pods to get off the doomed ship.

Erus made sure that everyone that made it to the escape pod had their harnesses secured before strapping himself onto one of the seats and the pod was jettisoned out of the ship.

Just as the last of the escape pods was launched the once magnificent flagship of the Republic navy blew up in a brief ball of fire as the ship was split in half from the stern onwards by a bomber wing that blew up what remained of the engine core.

Meanwhile what remained intact of the fleet made a quick jump out of the system just as ordered, everyone inside the pods simply hoped they would bring reinforcements when they returned.

With the current odds the Jedi, now officer of the Republic, didn't really have high hopes of any possible victory on the planet, he only hoped the Separatist officer in charge of the enemy fleet would be merciful enough to let him and his men live after the battle was over.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed I'll be bringing more chapters as soon as I'm able to.**

**In the meantime, MarxistFIN is signing out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**More Than Just a Clanker**

**A/N: Hi fellas, Marxist here and back here with yet another chapter, hope you enjoyed the last one because more of the same will be coming right ahead.**

**For clarification:**

_Italics + quotation marks: _Speaking through Droid Network ex. _'Beginning orbital bombardment.'_

**Chapter 2 – Conflict of Interest**

Exiting the C-9979 landing craft right behind the Multi Troop Transports, ST-ED's AAT was armed and ready for combat operations against the Republic forces on the ground.

Communicating his orders through the local Droid Network, he began coordinating the plan of battle to various local troops.

He was now in his very element.

'_Deploy the troops'_ He signaled the MTTs after all of them had exited their respective landing crafts and in response they opened up their cargo doors to deploy the masses of B1 and B2 battle droids onto the field.

Soon after all of the infantry was deployed he received the report that the rest of the vehicles had also arrived onto the junkyard planet's surface, amongst them several pieces of artillery like Hailfire droids, J-1 semi-autonomous proton cannons and Heavy Artillery Guns, or HAGs.

Through the sensory feeds of several Mechanized Assault Flyers and recon probes he could observe the battle going on between the garrison troops that were already on the planet prior to the Republic's arrival and how the current battle didn't exactly seem to be going in the Confederacy's favor.

Good thing he was here to correct that.

'_Artillery, get into firing position and prepare for a barrage.'_ Came the order that the respective units followed to the letter.

'_Infantry march forward to designated coordinates.'_ The battle droids began their synonymous march towards the battle going on amongst the two sides.

'_All walker units get into formation behind the infantry and provide support fire.' _The various lighter and heavier walkers like the Homing and Dwarf Spider Droids complied with the order and got into position behind the marching infantry formations.

'_OOM-29, take your tanks with you and protect the artillery units, they are vital to this operation.' _He ordered the command droid advisor who outside of his role as an advisor in space battles worked as a second-in-command on the ground.

'_Roger, roger commander ST-ED.' _Came the response through the network.

'_Rest of the mechanized units form up behind the command AAT.' _The droid commander ordered the remaining vehicles that had yet to be assigned any role in battle before telling his driver to begin maneuvering through the maze of junk piles that the planet had accumulated onto its surface amongst the centuries and even millennias that had passed by.

ST-ED had chosen the large junkyards as an opportune landing point since the Republic were mainly focusing their attacks on the garrisons located inside the habitable areas that housed the planet's worker population and the junkyards around those areas had offered a somewhat cramped but safe landing spot for the Droid Army that was not too far away from where the bulk of the fighting was taking place.

Even though he couldn't see it through the smog that covered the atmosphere of the planet he knew from the reports that were constantly being sent through the network that there was a fierce dogfight still going on amongst the remaining Republic fighter squadrons and the Vulture Droids. He just hoped that the hostile fighters would be too busy with the fighting to attempt to take down the MAFs that were in addition to doing strafing runs, combating their Republic counterparts; the LAATs.

'_Artillery is in position, commander. Ready to fire on your command.' _OOM-29 reported through the network.

'_Affirmative, sending in coordinates provided by the MAFs, you may proceed.'_

'_Roger, roger. Coordinates received, firing for effect.' _As soon as those words were sent through the network the artillery began their barrage, which appeared in the form of a continuous stream of heavy artillery rounds and rockets that was aimed straight at the main Republic formation assaulting the droid positions of the nearest garrison.

The results were received live through the feed provided by both recon probes and the MAFs flying in the surrounding area.

The scene could be described by two words: utter devastation.

After the barrage was over, dozens of mangled clone bodies and smoking carcasses of destroyed GAR tanks lay strewn across the no-man's-land separating the Confederate and Republic positions from each other and what little remained of the attack force was in full retreat.

But to their unpleasant surprise the droid infantry and walkers had by the orders of ST-ED arrived onto the scene and blocked their path with a wall of blaster fire, cutting off their only escape route.

The droid commander was impressed by the courage the Republic soldiers showed, even in the face of defeat they didn't give up and charged in with their guns blazing, attempting to cut a path through the droid lines and produce themselves an escape route.

Unfortunately for them, the droids were simply too numerous and they themselves too few to actually achieve that objective and they were cut down one by one until only a single trooper still fought amongst the mass of droids not realizing that his comrades had already been killed, the last clone finally went down in a tremendous explosion in the midst of the droid forces by detonating a backpack full of explosives, taking dozens of droids with him to grave.

'_Pity his sacrifice was in vain, because unlike organics we can be rebuilt.' _OOM-29 commented through the network and ST-ED found himself somewhat agreeing with his lieutenant's statement.

Seeing how the battle was over the droid commander opted to send in the OX9 labor droids to clean up the remains of battle droids that had fallen in battle for repair and recycling for spare parts.

With so many of the GAR's troops already killed in a single battle alone, victory against the Republic on Raxus Prime seemed assured to ST-ED.

But he knew the battle wasn't over just yet; they would still have to find a way to get to the Republic base hidden somewhere on the planet.

At the moment though, he calculated the Droid Army's chances of a successful campaign pretty high.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Main Republic Base on Raxus Prime**

**Command &amp; Control Center**

"Our attack force at the local settlement was decimated by both enemy air units and artillery, no survivors were able to get out after their escape was cut off by Separatist reinforcements that had gotten behind them." The clone lieutenant CT-100777 "Funn" explained to the people assembled around the holotable that was currently projecting a 3D version of the battle that had recently taken place.

Erus had his head hung low as the news was broken to him.

'So many lives lost, and for what? Just so we could temporarily be the masters of small batch of land?' He thought darkly.

"What is the situation with our remaining fighters?" He asked from the rest of the assembled officers.

"Not very good either, sir. They've been able to hold their ground with the enemy Vultures but their numbers have been steadily declining and we'll soon be completely without air support outside of our remaining gunships."

"Sir, Bravo Company has just come in contact with enemy armor and are requesting orders, what should I tell them?" One of the clones operating the communications console reported.

"Tell them to avoid open confrontation and retreat back to base..."

"Too late, sir they've been spotted and have engaged the enemy."

"Damnit!" The normally calm Jedi shouted in frustration while smashing his fist against the table, surprising everyone else with his outburst.

There was a moment of silence in the CCC before Funn decided to open his mouth again.

"With respect, sir. We're all worried about your mental health."

"Yes, we think that your mindset is not really best suited for the task of commanding troops." His advisor "Lee" said offering his two cents

"You think? You kriffin' think?!" He let out an outburst uncharacteristic to Jedi scaring his subordinates who visibly jumped back.

"Ever since I became a Jedi I've been studying to help people through healing… I'm not fit to be a commander in a war like this…"

"I mean, why were we Jedi even assigned into service just like this? We are supposed to be peacekeepers not military officers…" He said as he hung his head in shame.

Everyone was silent for a moment not really able to come up with anything to say, but the eerie silence was soon broken by the sound of loudspeakers carried by Separatist recon probes blasting in the distance.

"This message is meant for any and all Grand Army of The Republic's ground forces currently present on the planet of Raxus Prime." The broadcast began. "The Confederacy of Independent Systems offers good treatment to all its prisoners and a guarantee of safety from cruel punishment, surrender yourselves to the nearest Droid Army patrol or perish in a hopeless battle you can't possibly hope to win, the choice is yours to make we hope you choose wisely." The droid commander's distorted voice boomed through the speakers in Galactic Basic Standard.

The message kept repeating… over and over again for what seemed like hours, to the point that a group of green clones got irritated enough that they decided to attempt shooting the probes broadcasting it down.

Unbeknownst to them that was exactly what the droid commander wanted them to do.

Their more experienced comrades saw through the façade and attempted to stop them and were successful in halting their fire excluding the last member of the group who managed to land a shot on the probe with his DC-15S carbine from a vantage point on top the wreckage of an older model Republic gunship, downing the machine and ending the broadcast.

Without even realizing it, the rookie clone had just possibly sealed the fate of the remains of the GAR forces on Raxus Prime.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Several hours later**

**Raxus Prime**

**Crash Landing Area of a V-19 Torrent Starfighter**

**Clone Pilot CP-100359 "Kess"**

'Huh… wha… I'm still alive?' Kess thought as he tried to remember what had happened, ignoring the spike of pain that was currently pulsating in his chest area.

'Damn… I think I broke a rib or two…'

'What happened though, I was in the middle of a MAF when that Vulture got behind me and...'

'Bagger…'

'He crashed into the Vulture to save me…' He thought in sorrow, mourning the loss of his good friend.

'I got to get out of this thing.' He mused as he looked around him to see his fighter was stuck in between the hulls of two older model civilian freighters, but there was still light peeking up from the top.

'I'd have to climb up there, it's gonna be hard though with all this pain.' He thought while retrieving his DC-17 sidearm from its holster.

Due to the damage sustained by the hydraulic systems, he had to use the emergency lever located next to his chair to detonate the small explosives that blew the canopy window right off its hinges and climb out of the vessel that he judged was about to blow judging from the fire and smoke that was coming from the engine area.

He quickly began climbing through the narrow crack between the two ships, each move causing him excruciating pain but he attempted his best to ignore it for the sake of his own survival.

In the end it paid off, he got on the top just before the combined fuel and ammunition leaks caused the ship to explode in a huge fireball that rose up from between the cracks like a volcanic eruption.

The ship under him shook violently as a result and he fell on his back, rolling off the side of the ship and into a pile of rusty and scrapped droid parts, dropping his weapon in the progress.

As he was attempting to get up from the pile, he could hear footsteps closing in from the distance, he frantically searched for his weapon but it was nowhere to be found.

In desperation he picked up a large piece of a partly rusted droid arm to use as an improvised weapon against any battle droids that might come.

As the footsteps became louder, he began sweating nervously in his hiding spot, waiting for the droids to come into viewing distance.

"Come on you kriffing clankers… I'm waiting…" He muttered to himself in anticipation.

Soon he got his wish as a squad of B1 battle droids came in from around the right side of the ship he had stood on not too long ago to check out the remains of the starfighter and search for survivors.

"Search and secure the area, the commander wants all clones in this zone either dead or captured." The yellow painted command droid ordered the rest of his squad.

"Roger, roger." The other droids responded before getting to work.

Two of the battle droids split up from the group to check out the pillar of smoke coming out from between the cracks of the two ships while the rest spread out all around the area around them.

'I can't possibly hope to fight all of them off.' Kess thought grimly while looking at his odds of survival.

'Maybe I can get one of their rifles, it would at least increase my chances if nothing else.'

It seemed luck was on his side as a pair of droids that went past his hiding spot split up to go to separate directions at a crossroads section.

He quietly followed behind the left one, attempting to execute a sneak attack that would snap the head clean off the fragile droid's neck.

Getting off his crouched position, Kess quickly wrapped his hands around the battle droid's neck.

But while normally there would be a slight chance the droid's head would come off, he was too weakened by his wounds sustained in the crash to even have any hope of taking out his opponent.

And it backfired as the khaki-colored battle droid after a brief moment of confusion elbowed the clone pilot in his chest, resulting in almost crippling pain that caused him to fall on his knees yell out in agony.

And while Kess was stunned and shouting various curses the droid had already turned around and hit him with the butt of its rifle, knocking him out cold.

As Kess's unconscious body fell to the floor, the droid reported of its findings to the rest of squad through the Droid Network and soon enough the other droids came in to help the lonely battle droid carry the unconscious body of the clone back to Separatist lines.

'_Good job on taking down that clone KEK-921.' _The command battle droid complimented the B1 unit that had captured Kess.

'_He wasn't even much of a challenge, Sir. He was likely pretty weakened from the crash landing his ship suffered.' _The other droid replied back through the network.

The droids continue conversing amongst themselves before a message was broadcasted to all units through the Droid Network.

'_Attention all droids, stay clear of Sector 7, our ships will begin orbital bombardment on a Republic base there in 21 minutes and 52 seconds.' _The voice of Commander ST-ED told them.

"Sector 7?! That's where we are!" The command droid shouted out loud through his vocabulator to capitalize on the amount of danger his squad was about to be in if they didn't hurry up.

"Everybody ruuuuu-un!" The other droids shouted in panic as they began sprinting as fast as their thin legs could carry them to get away from the danger zone.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back in orbit**

**18****th**** Fleet**

**Droid Control Ship Bucket o' Bolts**

"Our sensors have picked up hyperspace signatures, we think it could be the Republic reinforcements coming in." TD-42 Reported in through the bridge's main holo-comm.

"So soon already? Blast it… they must have been preparing this invasion for quite a while."

"If I may… I'd like to offer possible advice on how to counter their tactics." ST-ED said as he joined into the call.

"Let's hear it then, you've already proven yourself an able tactician there's no reason for me to not at least hear you out."

"Admiral Halcorr, have you ever heard of the term… Improvised Explosive Device?"

"Can't say I have…"

"Let me explain the concept to you then…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Hyperspace**

**Republic Fleet en route to Raxus Prime**

**Flagship: Venator-class Star Destroyer Negotiator**

**Fleet Commanding Officers: Cndr. Anakin Skywalker and Gen. Obi-Wan Kenobi**

"We'll be reaching Raxus system soon, general." One of the clones reported.

"I don't like this, with little to no actual reconnaissance outside of the few ships that managed to escape from the battle we're going in essentially blind." Obi-Wan mused out loud in worry while stroking his beard.

"You worry too much, master. What possible threat could a few droids pose to us?" His padawan Anakin Skywalker asked with amusement through the holo-comm.

"May I remind you that those "few droids" as you call them, were able to wipe out almost an entire Republic fleet taking only minor casualties after they had completely surrounded the fleet through a simple flanking maneuver."

"Well hey, if anything goes wrong you know I'll be there to save the day." Anakin said as he cut off the feed.

"Anakin…! Blast that boy will be the death of me one day with his attitude."

"Sir, we have arrived."

The blue tunnel of hyperspace soon disappeared from around the fleet as they arrived into the system.

Only to find there were no Separatist ships in sight outside of three Munificent-class frigates parked in orbit around the junk planet.

"General, we are picking up energy build-ups from those frigates… they are preparing to fire onto the planet below!"

"By the force… with that amount of firepower Commander Kieol's position will be blown to kingdom come."

"Sir, commander Skywalker's ship is moving in to engage the Separatist fleet."

Obi-Wan was conflicted about what to do, he could do like his padawan and attack the droid fleet, but that course of action would leave them vulnerable to any possible traps the Separatists had no doubt put up all around the system.

He didn't have time to decide though so he opted to go with the first option that came to his mind, and that was to carefully advance alongside his padawan's ship through the field of destroyed ships with the rest of the fleet.

"Deploy our fighters to scout out ahead for any surprises the Seps might have left for us."

"Yes, sir."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Confederate Navy 18th Fleet**

**In orbit around Raxus II**

**DCS Bucket o' Bolts**

"It seems the Republic has taken our bait and are advancing towards commander ST-ED's ships." TD-42 commented in his usual neutral tone.

"Yes, after the rest of their fleet has entered into the debris field we'll be ready to spring our trap." Halcorr said as he observed the visual feed coming from one of the many recon probes hidden inside the remains of the destroyed Republic fleet.

The rest of the wait was spent in silence as the both the organic and synthetic commander waited for the opportune moment to begin "Operation: Distress Call" as ST-ED had put it.

One of the things Halcorr was worried about with the tactical droid's plan was if it failed to destroy or damage enough ships for the rest of the 18th fleet to overpower they would have to pull off a quick retreat out of the system and leave ST-ED to fend for himself on the ground against a numerically superior Republic force.

He didn't like abandoning his allies but he would if it meant it would spare both his men and his own skin from total annihilation.

'I just hope it doesn't come to that…' He thought while tapping his finger against the command chair's armrest in anticipation; sweat running down his forehead.

Minutes went by... until finally the last of the Republic vessels had entered deep enough into the debris field for the trap to spring effectively enough… hopefully.

He stood up slowly, pointed his finger forwards and shouted a single word.

"Now!"

And as he said that single word, a signal was sent to the various caches of improvised explosives hidden inside the hulls of Republic assault ships, frigates and star destroyers with disastrous results for the Republic fleet that had arrived to the system not too long ago.

Much to Halcorr's disappointment he wasn't able to observe the fireworks for too long because the recon probes that observed the scene had to be destroyed alongside the Republic fleet.

But it didn't keep him down for long as the Separatist fleet powered up their engines and came in from the dark side of the planet to greet what remained of the Republic fleet after the trap had been sprung.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back onboard the Negotiator**

"Damage report!" Obi-Wan shouted as he picked himself up from the floor to see the whole bridge in chaos.

"That explosion took out our shields and a good chunk of our fighters along with it. We'll be defenseless against enemy bombers if they come en masse."

"What's the situation with commander Skywalker's ship?"

"It's still intact, sir. But it seems to have taken a brunt of the blast and has had a big chunk of its port side hull blown clean off.

"Incoming enemy fleet! They are approaching us from the dark side of the planet!"

"Battle stations! Prepare to repel any boarders they might send!"

"Right away, sir!"

In the barracks area all of the clones quickly got off their beds and began putting on their gear.

"All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!" An automated voice sounded from the loudspeakers all around the ship as the clones got armed and ready for battle.

At the starboard side lower gun deck the medium turbolaser batteries were already being calibrated and loaded in preparation for the coming battle.

Soon enough they were put into action as the lead Separatist Recusant-class light destroyer opened fire with its weapons aiming for its Republic counterpart's bow section.

"Brace yourselves!" Kenobi shouted as the ship shook from the impacts it suffered to its front section.

"That one destroyed our bow's tractor beam emitter along with the generator."

"What's the situation with the rest of the fleet?"

"Not much better, sir. Some of them have managed to bring their shields back up but they are still far from combat ready."

The situation was looking grim for the Republic, a fully shielded and armed Separatist fleet was already beginning their attack on them and they were by all accounts almost defenseless.

Another barrage smashed against the hull of the Negotiator, blowing off weapons emplacements and ripping large burning holes all along the hull, that sucked the clone crew into the cold empty space as the depressurization took effect.

As fire was being exchanged between the two fleets in space, the situation on the surface of Raxus Prime also seemed desperate for the Republic.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Raxus Prime**

**Separatist Frontline Positions**

ST-ED was standing in an hastily erected trench that had been dug outside Sector 7, where the main Republic base on the planet had been located to be, observing the no-man's-land for enemy movement with his optics' built in zoom function, usually only seeing the occasional junk droid wobble about like it was going to collapse where it stood at any moment.

"What are those Republic fools up to…" He muttered to himself, another trait that he had picked up from the organic behavior that he had observed.

Through the Droid Network he could see that his plan had worked and the Republic fleet had flown straight into the trap the droids had built and were currently fighting a losing battle against the better prepared Confederate surprise attack.

Everything was going as he had predicted it would.

Except on the ground…

He had expected the Republic garrison to either begin further operations against the Droid army or surrender but they had simply been waiting inside their base, only engaging in the occasional skirmish with droid patrols.

The timer for the orbital bombardment was about to run out and the remaining GAR forces would vanish along with their Jedi Commander if nothing happened to chance that.

That was until ST-ED approached a single form approaching from the shadow of a rusted out half of a light corvette.

He immediately alerted the other droids of his findings through the network and a line of B1s was rapidly assembled into a neat line on the edge of the trench for maximum effect when firing.

As the figure slowly walked out of the shadow, he could see it was a single clone trooper officer judging from his yellow-painted armor, the man was unarmed and carrying only a white flag, a sign of surrender amongst organics.

The tactical droid wasn't about to take any chances so he ordered one of the B1s to move in and meet the clone in the middle of the no-man's-land to check that he was truly unarmed and not carrying any concealed weapons or explosives.

'_He's clean, Sir.'_

'_Bring him over here, slowly.' _ST-ED ordered, the droid complied and nudged the clone forward and towards the line of trenches.

After the pair had reached them the droid commander immediately walked over to them.

"Why have you arrived here, soldier of the Republic?"

"My commander wants to negotiate our surrender, I was sent here to inform you of the two terms."

"Fine, I will hear you out. Now speak."

"The first condition is that all of his men are to be treated as prisoners of war and no cruel punishment or harsh treatment shall come to any of them."

"That is acceptable."

"And the second term is that the clones are allowed to bury their dead brothers."

"The second term is also acceptable under supervision. You may inform your commander that I accept these conditions." ST-ED said as he gesture for the clone to leave, which he did as fast as he could.

'_Are you sure this is a wise move, Commander? What if this is some sort of a trick? _OOM-29 commented through the network from his position on the opposite side of the trench line that surrounded the Republic-controlled zone.

'_There is no need for worry, I always have a back-up plan for all things.'_ ST-ED replied, dismissing any possible concern about the situation.

In the end, the Selkath Jedi commander did keep his promise and the entire two and a half thousand-man strong Republic force on the surface of Raxus Prime surrendered to the Droid Army. ST-ED followed the terms of their surrender treaty, as the clones were disarmed and gathered into temporary prison camps to await transportation off-world.

In space the battle had ended in Confederate victory after several destroyed or severely damaged ships on both sides, but most of the casualties came from the Republic and had as a result caused General Kenobi to order a full retreat. The taskforce led by GAR's Jedi poster boys that had been sent to liberate the planet from Separatist control and relieve their forces already on the ground had been utterly decimated by the cunning tactical genius shown by the droid commander ST-ED while serving under the Confederacy's 18th Fleet.

Many survivors of the battle had been taken prisoner in the end, they totalled around 3200 personnel both clone and natural-born.

In the end, all of the fighting that had taken place in the Raxus System during the two long days had been a waste of both time and resources for GAR and worst of all a humiliating defeat that would remain a stain on the reputation of the Republic's armed forces for a long time to come.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**The Next Day**

**Serenno**

**Count Dooku's Palace**

**Throne Room**

"Are these reports accurate?" Dooku's deep voice asked the holographic form of Admiral Halcorr.

"I'll give you my word on it, my lord. You also have the report of General Tann concerning ST-ED's actions on Geonosis to back my claims up." The balding middle-aged Confederate admiral assured his superior.

The Confederacy's head of state was deep in thought for quite a while as he read through the rest of the combat reports on the battle that took place inside the Raxus system.

After finishing with the reports he had finally come to a conclusion.

"Very well, from the reports provided to me I can conclude that the tactical droid ST-ED has completed his test run most successfully and is fit to be put into full-time duty as a General of the Droid Army."

"My lord, if I may." Halcorr said. "I'd recommend he be put in charge of the 21st Fleet alongside his advisor and second-in-command OOM-29."

"I'll take your professional opinion into consideration when making my final decision, but for now… consider yourself dismissed."

The admiral bowed deeply before the feed was cut off from the other end.

After the conversation with the naval officer was done, the count got back to the various paperwork he had to go through, including the form which would officially confirm ST-ED's assignment as an officer in the Confederacy's armed forces and assign him to a designated fleet.

He filled all the necessary information and finally designated Superior Tactics Enforcer Droid as the commanding officer of the 21st fleet of the Confederate navy since it was the newest fleet of the CIS navy and didn't really have anyone to command it yet.

After signing the form, he sent it away to be processed by the bureaucrats of the Droid Army's logistical department who would pass the information on to the newly promoted general himself.

All the seemingly unnecessary bureaucratic work to promote a single droid made him seriously wonder if the Confederacy that he had helped establish as a more free alternative to the corrupt, over-taxing and bureaucracy-chocked Republic had only in the end, turn up becoming just like it.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: To clarify some things, since the Conquest of Raxus Prime and the Dark Reaper alongside many other EU stuff are no longer considered canon by Disney I took the freedom to edit some of the things that happened in the original plot of the Clone Wars game to suit my needs.**

**Expect a lot more of this kind of stuff in the future.**

**In the meantime, MarxistFIN is signing out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**More Than Just A Clanker **

Chapter 3 – Into The Breach

**In Hyperspace**

**Destination: Planet Krant, Krant System of Bothan Sector**

**21****st**** Fleet of The Confederate Navy**

**Fleet Makeup: **

**8 Munificent-class Star Frigates**

**2 Recusant-class Light Destroyers**

**6 Diamond-class Cruisers**

**1 Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship**

**1 Providence-class Cruiser/Carrier (Flagship)**

**Multiple squadrons of Vulture Droids and Hyena-class Bombers**

**Multiple C-9979 Landing Craft**

**Flagship: General ST-ED's Modified Providence-class Cruiser/Carrier "Illusionist"**

After having been assigned his own fleet, ST-ED had immediately gotten to work on several modifications that would be implemented to the cruiser working as his flagship. Firstly the bridge was removed completely as a structural weakness and its purpose was taken over by a Command &amp; Control Center built deep within the ship's superstructure.

This modification ensured that the ship couldn't be easily taken out of action by simply having its bridge bombed into oblivion like his own bombers had done to one of the Republic's own cruisers in the previous battle when they were able to cripple the entire ship with just two bombers that took out the bridge towers.

Other modifications included more energy-efficient engines that could last longer without a refueling, secondary shield generators were added to provide an additional layer of shielding in case the primary one was taken out. Finally the ship had its primary life support system functions removed because they were found to be unnecessary on a ship crewed entirely by droids.

Additional modifications to the ship's armament had been under planning but the droids were unable to get them started due to being called back to action by Count Dooku himself to assist General Tann who was being hunted down by the Jedi.

And that was why they were currently heading towards a forest-covered planet known as Krant that was located in the Krant system of Bothan Sector.

"Contact with General Tann's forces was lost almost four hours ago, since then we've heard nothing coming in or out of the system." OOM-29's hologram explained to the projections of the other droid officers assembled around the holographic table displaying the map of the star system they were heading in.

"Do we have any intelligence on the enemy numbers?" ST-ED asked as he stood in the middle of his ships CCC, observing the projection of the map through the holo-comm projector.

"The enemy only seems to have a small fleet there, but they have most likely landed most of their troops by now. Unless the enemy has gotten reinforcements we should be able to overpower their space forces."

"Excellent, after we sweep the Republic fleet from the face of the galaxy we must immediately begin landing troops, we don't have much time to waste if we are to ensure General Tann's survival."

"Rules of engagement?" One of the other command droids OOM-35, asked.

"Take no survivors…"

"Roger, roger."

"General, we are about to enter the system." One of the pilot droids operating the navigation consoles reported to the group.

"Affirmative, everyone prepare for battle, you are dismissed." ST-ED said with a nod as the rest of his fleet's officers exited the conversation.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he leaned over one of the pilot droids who was operating the navigational console at a speed only a droid could to observe as his ship came out of hyperspace and into the Krant system where a Republic fleet was already waiting for them.

"Raise shields, and prepare our weapons for battle." The droid general ordered calmly as the blue pilot droids frantically got to work.

Through the droid network he began issuing orders once more to rapidly coordinate his fleet's movements.

'_Launch all fighters and bombers.'_

'_When within minimum effective range, concentrate fire on the base of the lead destroyer's bridge towers.'_

'_Vultures, protect the bombers while they destroy the enemy frigates and assault ships' engines.'_

'_Gather all diamond-class vessels around the flagship and droid control ship to protect them from enemy bombers.'_

As he got the replies through the network, he simply opted to observe as the two fleets clashed with each other.

Through the video feed coming from the various sensors spread around the ships, he could see the Munificents closing in on the single Venator of the enemy's fleet with their guns blazing, quickly depleting the hostile vessel's shields before starting to pound its hull to pieces. Blowing up gun emplacements on both starboard and port side and destroying the crew areas with guided proton torpedoes in addition to collapsing the two bridge towers and removing any control the crew had of the ship's movements.

Meanwhile hundreds of fighters and bombers were keeping the rest of the enemy fleet busy so the droid fleet's frigates could easily overwhelm the single destroyer with their sheer numbers.

Only a half an hour into the battle and already the Republic had lost three of their ships including the Venator, which after having lost all control of its movements had briefly become a new star in the sky as an explosion in the engine department tore the large ship in half.

And all of it was achieved with no casualties on the droid side outside of the destroyed fighters and bombers, but ST-ED considered those casualties acceptable since they were more easily replaceable than entire ships.

'_Finish off the remaining Acclamators and begin landing our troops on the ground.'_ The droid general ordered and as the Recusants and the Illusionist joined up with the frigates to take care of the remaining assault ships, the single Lucrehulk and the all of the Diamond-class ships moved past them to land their ground forces on to the planet below.

OOM-29 who was commanding the droid control ship also got on board the C-9979 landing craft as it took off from the hangar bay to head groundside on Krant.

Their landing site was the fortress that General Tann was using as her base of operations on the planet, from there they would be able to launch a counter-attack against the Republic forces.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Mustafar, Mustafar System of Atravis Sector**

**Detention Center Z941 "Paradise Island"**

In addition to housing criminals and people who paid their debts with prison time, the Clone Wars had given the quite ironically named Z941 "Paradise Island" detention center a new job of housing prisoners of war, whether they were clone troopers that had been captured in the midst of fighting or the natural-born men and women of various species that had been commanding and fighting alongside those clones before their capture.

Amongst the new arrivals to the already quite cramped prison were Kess and Funn alongside other clone troopers from the battle of Raxus Prime that had only ended about a week prior to their arrival to the prison.

After going through a full check-up for any hidden items each of the clones were given a prison uniform and escorted to the detention area where they were given a place to stay in cells already filled to the brim with their brethren from previous battles, the clones were treated almost like cattle as they were forced inside the cramped space that had the beds already filled and some were forced to sleep on the floor.

Kess and Funn were both one of the unlucky ones who had to sleep side-to-side with their brethren on the floor that barely had any free space for movement due to being so cramped.

"This is ridiculous, I can't believe they treat us like this." Kess mumbled in frustration as he stood and watched from behind the ray shield as the remaining natural-borns were being escorted to the next area, which was reserved almost exclusively for them.

"You and me both, I even heard rumors from some of the long-time inmates about screams coming from the medical wing. They say the guys who go there always come up all shivering and quiet like they've seen the face of the devil himself." Funn said as he tried to sit comfortably on the cold metal floor.

"You think they're torturing them? Doing some sort of sick kriffin' medical experiments on them?"

"I don't know, not for certain."

"Hey shut up down there we're trying to catch some sleep before the next work shift starts."

"Work shift?" Kess asked.

The clone who was sleeping on the top bed of the two-deck next to the ray shield got up and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You new guys haven't heard yet? Each day the Seps put everyone inside the prison to work in the local mines, you are given food according to how much work you do, which is measured in how much mineral you can mine from the soil. If you don't work, you won't eat. That's how the deal goes here." The un-shaved trooper said as he looked at the two newcomers with dark bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep.

"Oh yeah, name's "Rig" by the way, because I like rigging things to blow. What about you?"

"I'm Kess."

"And I'm Funn."

"Nice to meet you both. Now, I'd recommend you get some sleep too because you're gonna need all the energy you can muster when the shift begins." Rig says as he lies back on his bed and closes his eyes.

Kess and Funn looked at each other for a while before they nodded and lied down on the floor themselves to catch some well-needed shut-eye.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Surface of Krant**

**Edge of The Wookie Encampment Used By The Republic**

OOM-29 had a hard time coordinating all of the troops that were on the ground with his limited processing power as the Republic was constantly pushing back against them with their Jedi General Echuu-Shen-Jon leading the charge, he was determined to free his padawan from the captivity of the CIS forces at all costs.

General ST-ED had told the command droid to hold the line at all costs while he attempted to convince the Chiss General of the foolishness of her plan to duel with the Jedi master one-on-one.

"General Tann, I strongly advice you to seize your suicidal actions before you get you and all of your forces killed." The tactical droid explained his opinion calmly to the Sith lady who was unconvinced.

"No, I don't need your help droid, I don't even know why you are here to begin with…"

"…I was sent here by the orders of Count Dooku to ensure your continued survival against the Republic forces."

"I…have…the situation…under…control." Tann said in a threateningly low voice.

"If you are not willing to see the benefit of my suggestion then I suppose I must make you see it. General Tann, as of this moment I am relieving you of command of all Droid Army forces on planet Krant." The droid stated in his almost characteristically calm and neutral voice.

That caused something to snap in the normally calm Chiss lady's mind as her eye began to twitch and the expression on her face turned into one of utter rage.

"**I WILL NOT BE USURPED BY A MERE DROID!"** She shouted as she began producing what would normally be lethal amounts of force lightning from her fingertips and aimed it towards ST-ED who simply stood unimpressed as he raised his energy shield to protect himself.

A large dust cloud formed between the two as the amount of lightning began increasing until Sev'rance couldn't sustain it anymore and collapsed on her knees in exhaustion.

As the dust settled she looked to see the form of ST-ED who was still standing, fully active and no visible damage on his droid body.

The droid simply shook his head in disappointment before he used the boosters in his legs charge towards his opponent and after a series of quick and powerful punches, knock her to the ground.

After she got off the dusty floor, she activated her deep red lightsaber and charged at the droid in a moment of rage-filled bloodlust.

But she was shocked beyond belief as she saw her lightsaber short out as soon as it hit the droid's body, who turned to look at her straight in the eye and shake his head again.

"I am most unimpressed by your simplistic tactics, you should have realized that a droid as informed and intelligent as me would take precautions when facing against force users after the incident on Geonosis. Which is why I covered every bit and part of my durasteel body with cortosis and EMP-protective materials." The droid officer said as he rose the Sith lady up into the air by her throat with nothing but his right hand.

"It is unfortunate I still have a battle to win on this planet so I'll have to leave you to the company of my troops until the fight with the Republic is over." The droid said in a creepily calm tone as he continued choking the weakened dark acolyte. "Good night, General Tann." He said as he struck his left fist hard on her head, knocking her out cold.

"Put a force-supression collar on her and take her to somewhere… safe." He ordered a pair of super battle droids who had been guarding the doorway to the room the two had been conversing in.

The two battle droids complied their orders and began dragging the unconscious chiss away while ST-ED contacted his second-in-command.

'_OOM-29, status report.'_

'_We're pulling back, sir. The enemy's Jedi commander is cutting through our lines like nothing, we need support or a better plan.' _The command droid reported while his AAT was being fired upon by the Republic's Saber tanks.

'_It's a good thing I have a plan then, retreat back towards the fortress and be ready when I require you.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

After the exchange, he went to see where the Jedi master's Padawan that the General Tann had captured, finding her in a cage with her hands tied behind her back by handcuffs and a force-supression collar locked tightly around her neck.

She showed clear signs of beating on her face in form of swelling, a bloodied nose and a black eye as she turned to look at the tactical droid with an empty look in her eyes.

"What do you want with me…?"

ST-ED didn't answer he simply ordered the two super battle droids guarding the cage to open it and escort the prisoner with him to the small medical center used mainly by the Geonosian warriors present in the fortress alongside the droid forces.

After arriving there, he once again used the network to order the 2-1B surgical droid to sedate the Jedi, who didn't really have the power left to struggle as the needle was stuck into her neck.

'_I need you to perform a quick surgical procedure on her to implant something inside her body, how fast can you do that?'_

'_It depends, where do you want to implant and how big is the object being implanted.'_

'_I need a grenade-sized explosive to be implanted somewhere in the stomach area alongside her other organs.'_

'_That shouldn't take too long, it should be done in approximately ten to fifteen minutes whether you want me to save time or her immune system from infections.'_

'_I'll take the quicker option, hold on a minute.'_ ST-ED said as he ran towards the armory to retrieve a powerful Class-A thermal detonator, which he then quickly modified by removing the timer and replacing it with a remote detonation trigger, linked to his own systems.

Coming back, he handed the detonator to the surgical droid who quickly got to work on his sedated victim, cutting open a large section of the Jedi's skin around the stomach area and opening up the organ in question with a scalpel and placing the highly volatile and deadly explosive device inside it and securing it there.

After making sure the explosive wouldn't slip out or detonate prematurely, the surgical droid began to quickly sew the stomach shut again, and after that the section of the skin that had been cut open.

All was said and done in about twelve minutes.

'_I'm finished.' _ The medical droid reported.

'_I can see that, good work.'_

After all was ready, ST-ED ordered the two super battle droids accompanying him to carry the Jedi alongside him to the frontlines of the ongoing battle, removing her binds and force-supression collar on the way there.

'_OOM-29 I am approaching the frontlines, is the Jedi master somewhere near you?'_

'_Yes, sir. He's approaching my position rapidly and I hope whatever your planning works because the GAR forces will soon outnumber our own._

'_Affirmitive, keep heading my way and I can assure you he will be eliminated in the most cruel twist of irony imaginable.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

As the droid trio kept walking, the sounds of battle became louder and soon they could see OOM-29's tank in the distance as he and the forces around him were being chased by the Republic.

They stopped to observe as the main droid force got closer to them, and when they finally reached them, they pretended like they were also running scared from the Republic forces and the Jedi.

That's when it was time for ST-ED to lay the final piece of his trap.

'_Drop her to the ground as if you were organics dropping some heavy burden to get away faster.' _He ordered the two B2s whom complied by hastily dropping the body of the stirring Jedi padawan onto the ground behind them as they kept running.

After judging they were a good distance away from the nearest Republic troops, ST-ED ordered the droid force to halt and begin returning fire with the clones who were giving chase to them.

The white-armored soldiers of GAR quickly dove for cover and as the droid general had expected, the Jedi master went to help his padawan who from the outside seemed to be in a pretty bad condition.

As his troops provided covering fire, the man picked her up from the ground and began carrying her back in one hand and using the light saber in his other to block the incoming blaster bolts.

ST-ED would have grinned if it had been possible for a droid like him as he observed all of it take place.

'And all the pieces of the puzzle finally fall into place.' He thought as he sent the command that would trigger the explosion to the detonator.

As Echuu-Shen-Jon ran with his padawan in his hands, a muffled beeping sounded from the padawan's stomach. He received a warning through the force but wasn't able to decipher what it meant in time as the beeping rapidly increased and in the next second… the detonator exploded…taking both of the Jedi and several clones near them along with it in the resulting explosion.

That was the moment ST-ED had been waiting for as he ordered his troops to advance again, and since the battle in space had already finished a long time ago, he was able to call in a bombing run to smash the Republic lines to pieces.

Without their Jedi commander to provide support and with more enemy bombers and even several gunships rapidly approaching their position, the remaining clone officers ordered a full retreat of all Republic forces from the field of battle and back towards the Wookie camp where their parked Acclamator was located at.

It was another glorious day of victory for the Droid Army and ST-ED.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Three Days Later**

**Serenno**

**Count Dooku's Palace**

**Throne Room**

ST-ED alongside OOM-29 waited outside of the large throne room double doors for Dooku to finish with his scolding session to his dark apprentice, the droid general was waiting patiently for the doors to open so he could receive his next assignment in person.

"General Tann… I am most disappointed with your reckless actions on Krant…"

"Lord Dooku, I can explain…"

"I don't want your pitiful explanations…" Dooku said in anger as he shot a burst of lightning from his fingertips, causing his apprentice to scream in anguish. "Your insistence on dueling someone as powerful as master Shen-Jon on your own almost cost us both the planet of Krant and the decimator prototypes." Dooku said with a disappointed tone, shaking his head before firing another arc of artificial electricity from his hand causing Tann to once more spasm and cry her vocal cords out as painful amounts of electricity coursed through her, which finally caused her to black out. "Be thankful that I sent General ST-ED there to save your sorry hide." Dooku said in his usual deep, calm tone as he gestured for the two super battle droids guarding the doorway to pick up the smoking body of his apprentice and carry it out of the room.

"I wonder what they are talking about in there, all I can hear are just muffled sounds akin to bantha mating calls." OOM-29 commented.

"Well… that's organics for you, they like their speeches." ST-ED responded mockingly.

"Do you know anything about our next assignment yet?"

"No clue, that's what we are here to find out after Lord Dooku is finished chewing up his apprentice, which should be any moment now…"

And just as those words left ST-ED's vocabulator, the double doors flew wide open and out marched a pair of super battle droids who were carrying the still smoking and unconscious body of General Tann.

After waiting for the Chiss General to get carried a good distance away from them, the two droids decided to step inside the throne room where their leader was already waiting for them.

"Ahh… ST-ED, I assume this is OOM-29." Dooku asked in a soft tone while nodding towards the command battle droid.

"Yes, my lord. Do you have a new assignment for us?" ST-ED replied.

"As a matter of fact I do, I need your fleet to accompany me and General Grievous on a testing run of one of our new secret weapons against the Republic. Within one week, you will receive coordinates to the system we're testing it in, be there as soon as possible. Until then, you are free to do as you please."

"I understand, my lord. We will be there when you require us."

"See to it that you do, you are dismissed." The count said, waving his hand as a gesture for the two droids to leave his presence.

As the two droids left the palace they were both silently contemplating what this secret weapon could possibly be.

To ST-ED though, the week before the test would take place would be a good time to improve his flagship's functions even further.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back on Mustafar**

**Near "Paradise Island"**

**B910 Mining Facility**

Mining inside the caves that were more like swiss cheese than anything else had proved to be just as if not more hazardous than most battlefields Kess and Funn had fought on, exploding gas pockets, collapses, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were just a few of the many health hazards that the prisoners faced when digging for the precious materials inside the cave system.

Fortunately Rig had been there to teach them the ropes and basic rules of the system all the way in addition to helping them with their own workload due to his increased muscle mass courtesy to a long time of hard work inside the mine.

He knew that helping the others with their work would mean less food for him at the end of the workday, but he knew that the clones had to stick together to survive.

"Man… I don't think I've worked this hard since the war began…" Kess said out loud as he stopped cutting through the rocky soil with his sonic drill to wipe a bead of sweat running down his forehead.

"Well, get used to it. There's a lot more where that came from before any of us are getting out of here." Rig said to him while loading a large chunk of rock with various valuable minerals sticking out from it onto the mine cart.

"This stuff is heavy…" Funn said as he carried a container full of rocks filled with various metal types onto the very same cart.

"They aren't called heavy metals for no reason." Rig explained while he picked up his drill again and started cutting through the hard rock again.

Suddenly the loud horn located at the mouth of the cave system sounded off, signaling the end of another workday.

The three clones started up the small propulsion engine of the mine cart that would help them get it to the surface faster before releasing the handbrake as the trio started pushing the heavy cart with all their might.

But the volcanic surface was somewhat slippery and quite steep so it felt like only a matter of time before one of them lost their footing and fell back down into the cave below.

They had already seen it happen to another group once, and those men had all died after the heavy cart had come crashing back down and crushed all of them under its weight.

But by some miracle none of them lost their footing during the whole trip and they were able to get the cart full of minerals back to the surface level to be processed.

In the end the total weight of their two loads that day was measured as 63.8 Kilograms and they were all given full meals to compensate for it and as an extra they were given one of the empty cells that had two double-deckers to sleep on so they would all be able to sleep better that night.

That day, they had been one of the lucky ones...

…Unlike so many others, who had to go to bed hungry that night… that is if they even had a bed to sleep on to begin with.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Six Days Later**

**21****st**** Fleet of The Confederate Navy**

**Abregado System**

The Raxus Prime had become somewhat of an unofficial base of operations for ST-ED after the battle that had taken place there, he used the planet's capital, Central Station, as a place to dock his flagship while it the modifications for it were under construction.

After getting back into the system from the meeting with the Confederacy's head of state, the droid general had immediately began work on the installation of additional weapons to the ship's top and bottom.

After almost a week of hard work, the ship was now dotted with weapons emplacements in all places but the engines and hangar bay, and with the successful conquest of Bespin by the CIS naval forces a few days prior; there was no shortage of refined tibanna gas to be used for the new turbolaser batteries that surrounded most of the ship.

Right after finishing the last touch to the already heavily armed cruiser, an encrypted message had come in from Count Dooku with coordinates to the system. It had only a single sentence, but the message was clear enough.

"The time has come."

Now ST-ED was onboard the bridge of the massive Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence alongside both Count Dooku and the menacing cyborg General Grievous. At the moment the whole system seemed quiet with only the 21st fleet alongside the Confederate super weapon being the only ships in the whole system as they orbited the system's star.

ST-ED personally didn't like being in the presence of the Kaleesh cyborg, the way he treated droids like him could be considered nothing short of bigoted. It was apparently normal for him to destroy battle droids under his command when angry, either cutting them apart with his impressive collection of lightsabers or just simply punching the heads off their shoulders.

He had brought this up with Count Dooku in private, but the man had insisted that Grievous was to remain in command, due to him being a valuable asset to the Separatist cause as a great tactician and a fierce warrior who could challenge even the best of the Jedi order.

So ST-ED opted to simply put his personal differences with the cyborg aside and focus his attention to coordinating his fleet's actions if they were needed to secure the heavy cruiser's continued safety and secrecy from the Republic.

"Sir, a Republic fleet has just arrived into the system, looks like three cruisers." A pilot droid operating the consoles informed Grievous.

"Jam their communications, we mustn't let them give away our position." Grievous ordered with a synthesized voice courtesy to the vocabulator that worked as his mouth.

As the droids on the consoles worked their magic, Count Dooku decided it was time to begin the experiment.

"This would be a good time to test our new weapon, Generals." Dooku said referring to both the cyborg and the droid general. "You may fire when ready."

"Yes, my lord." Grievous said while ST-ED remained silent and observing to the incoming Republic fleet.

"_Charge up the main cannon and prepare to attack."_ ST-ED ordered the droids operating the consoles as they entered targeting solutions for the main weapon.

Soon after, the weapon was fully charged and Grievous yelled a single word that sealed the fate of the Republic fleet.

"FIRE!"

As the cannon released its charge, it came out as a large wave of ionized energy that simply washed over the Republic fleet, shutting of power from all the ships and frying both their systems and equipment.

"Their shields are down."

"All turbolaser batteries, open fire! Blow them to pieces!" Grievous commanded as he struck down his hand, illustrating a slashing motion.

ST-ED Observed in silent amazement as all power was drained from the Republic vessels before the large arsenal of guns of varying size the heavy cruiser was carrying opened fire and one by one the Republic ships were destroyed.

"They've launched escape pods."

"We must leave no witnesses if we wish to keep both our position and this vessel a secret." Dooku mused.

"I wholeheartedly agree, send in the hunters. Leave no survivors." Grievous ordered with almost sadistic glee sounding in his voice.

"Roger, roger."

"ST-ED." Count Dooku said to the tactical droid.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Move your ships in and form a protective circle around the debris field. Don't let anyone get in or out."

"It will be done, my lord." The tactical droid acknowledged with a bow as he left the bridge to head back to his ship.

'_OOM-29.'_

'_Yes, general?'_

'_We have received orders to make sure no intruders get into the system while Grievous is finishing off the survivors, tell all ships except the Illusionist to move out into position and be on their guard. I will be back there shortly.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

Taking off with his Sheathipede-class shuttle from the Malevolence's hangar bay, observing from the cockpit window how his ships moved into position around the debris field.

The flight back to the 21st fleet's flagship didn't take too long and after arriving back on board he headed straight for the CCC.

'_Did our sensors pick up any outgoing communications?'_

'_None that we know of, sir.'_

'_Excellent, that way even if some of the survivors do manage to evade the pod hunters, we'll still be there to finish them off.'_

He soon arrived to the heart of the vessel, where he got to work in coordinating the fleet's movements in sniffing out any possible intruders and helping the podhunters find where the remaining escape pods are located at by sending in the MAFs and squadrons of vultures to look for them.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Jedi Master Plo Koon's Escape Pod**

"We've lost power to all systems including life support recharge, if the droids won't get us, the lack of oxygen eventually will." CC-3636 "Wolffe" explained to the Jedi master and the other clones inside the pod.

"What, so we just sit here and wait to die?" Sergeant Sinker asked with frustration.

"We must work together if we are to survive this ordeal, someone is bound to come look for us eventually. But firstly we must get the power restored so we will at least be able to last until rescue arrives." The Kel Dor Jedi master calmly said as the clones got to work.

"With respect, sir. Do you really believe anyone will come looking for us? They don't have any reason to do so, we're just clones after all…" Sinker asked pessimistically.

"I value all life, yours included."

"Look, there's one of the pods!" Wolffe said, pointing towards one of the pods floating in the distance.

"If only we could get a look at the other side…" Boost mumbled as Plo Koon stretched out with the force to rotate the pod clockwise.

"Damn… they got busted." Wolffe said in shock as he watched a clone trooper's corpse float outside from the broken observation window of the pod.

"We're not alone out here… be wary for they may be coming for us next."

As Boost and Sinker were working on fixing the power cords, the Jedi master was on the lookout alongside Wolffe.

Soon enough they saw yet another pod.

"Over there! Another one!" Wolffe yelled, pointing out into space.

"I see them, it seems those droids are closing in on them." Master Koon said as he observed the Droch-class boarding ship close in on the helpless escape pod with its clawed arms extended out.

Meanwhile the other pair was already close to getting the power back online.

"No, that one goes there…" Sinker explained to his friend as he connected the fixed cord to its other end, causing the power to come back online.

Immediately there was a message heard from the emergency radio transmitter.

"This is Pod-1977, the droids are attempting to crack our pod open we need help!" The clone at the other end shouted through a distorted and crackled voice.

"The signal is very weak." Wolffe said as he attempted to fix the signal so it could be heard clearer.

"I repeat, the droids are hunting escape pods for survivors!" The signal could be heard much better.

The four-man group inside the pod could only helplessly look and observe the last moments of the two crewmembers, as the droids took out their fusion cutters to crack the pod open.

"Oh no, they are cutting through…!" The radio operator inside the other pod shouted his last words before the glass window was broken and the two survivors were jettisoned out into space where they quickly suffocated.

The whole group was silent for a moment.

"Well… looks like our situation just got a whole lot worse…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: Phew… There was a lot going on in this chapter and at times it was pretty hard to write (Especially with the last part about the Malevolence)**

**Still, I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned for the next chapter because it too will be coming soon.**

**As always, MarxistFIN is signing out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**More Than Just A Clanker**

**A/N: You know what grinds my gears? People who read and like a story but don't bother to put enough effort into their reviews to tell why they liked it, what were the parts they liked and disliked about it, pretty basic shit folks. It really gets tiring to all writers watch the same review by a different reader telling them the story is great and that they should continue, not really going any deeper beyond that.**

**These kinds of reviews don't help anyone; the author doesn't learn anything from these reviews on how to become a better writer because he doesn't know what people liked or disliked about the story so he can focus on making more stuff like that. Another thing many people miss in their reviews is critique of inconsistencies or writing errors in the plot, I only noticed that in my chapters AFTER I had already posted them and had to go back and correct them when posting updates.**

**So I only have one thing to request from my readers: Think before you review. It helps get your point across a lot better if you actually interact with the writer through reviews beyond just the basics.**

**Sorry, had to just get that rant out of my system.**

**Anyways, onto the story itself…**

**Warning: This chapter may contain feels; mostly droid feels but feels nonetheless.**

Chapter 4 – The Hunt Continues

**Abregado System**

**Debris field of previously destroyed Republic fleets**

**21****st**** Fleet of CIS Navy Escorting The Prototype Heavy-Cruiser Malevolence**

**Command &amp; Control Center of The Illusionist**

ST-ED patiently observed through the feed coming from the optics of the rocket battle droid operating the pod hunter's navigation console as he turned the boarding craft towards the last undamaged escape pod left from the Republic fleet sent to take out the Malevolence.

They had yet to find the pod that the fleet's commanding officer, Jedi or otherwise, was located at, the tactical droid was hoping he or she was waiting in the last pod so he could be certain that the location of the Malevolence would not be compromised, otherwise he would have to just assume that the CO perished when the fleet's ships were destroyed.

As the hunting crew attached their craft's claws onto the last pod something appeared very wrong.

'_The pod's empty, there's no-one here.' _The boarding craft's pilot informed everyone through the droid network.

'_Look around you, the Republic troops could have gotten outside to put up resistance if they have suits that can sustain the vacuum of space.' _ST-ED ordered.

'_Roger, rog—Wait! There they are! Blast them!' _The hunter pilot said as the clone troopers got on top of the pod to blast two of the pod hunting droids who were attempting to cut the window open with their fusion cutters.

'_We will be bringing reinforcements to help destroy the pod on the double, what's your current location? _ST-ED said to the droid leading the small squad of hunters as they exchanged fire with the Republic troops.

'_We are in sector 6A, there's a Jedi in here and he's just deflecting all of our bolts back at us. We can't finish them off with our current numbers.'_

'_Affirmative, we're sending in several of our MAFs to take care of them, hold your position.'_

'_Roger, roger.' _

ST-ED then changed the feed to a group of MAF gunships that were surveying the debris field and gave them the command to head towards the last remaining escape pod and help out the pod hunting droids.

Back at the pod almost all of the rocket battle droids had been eliminated except the squad leader piloting the boarding craft who in desperation began squeezing the escape pod's hull inwards with the boarding craft's claws in hopes of destroying it and deriving the clones and their Kel Dor Jedi commander of any extra oxygen should they survive the attack.

He only partially succeeded by making a small hole into the pod's hull that began leaking the precious air out of it while the unsuited clone inside was attempting to send out a distress call to any friendly forces that might have snuck into the system.

Unfortunately for the lonely rocket droid, the Jedi managed to cut the claws off, separating the two vessels from each other and with a simple force push, the Kel Dor finished the battle droid off by crashing the boarding craft into nearby passing ship debris where it exploded and took the droid with it.

Even after the last of the rocket droids were destroyed, ST-ED continued to observe the feed one of the MAFs was broadcasting of the pod as it approached its target.

"So, Grievous' droids have obviously failed in their task of eliminating all survivors? Well it doesn't really matter, I'll finish what his troops failed."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Plo Koon's Group's Escape Pod**

**Surrounding Debris**

"I've lost contact with Wolffe, I'm afraid he has either fallen unconscious or died from the lack of oxygen." Sinker informed the two other survivors.

"His loss is unfortunate, but we must still keep hope that rescue will arrive in some form." The Kel Dor Jedi said in a somber tone as he silently mourned the loss of his long time clone advisor.

"With all due respect, sir. I think that time has long since past us." Boost said pessimistically.

Any further conversation was cut off as the mechanized assault flyers flew past their position while looking for them with their searchlights.

They were so focused on staying hidden by the gunships that had just flown past them that they didn't have time to watch that anyone didn't get behind them until it was too late and one of the clones paid the price for that slip.

"Gaa-ah!" A scream of pain came from Boost as he was shot in the back multiple times by one of the gunships that had gotten behind the three men, he was dead before the Jedi or Sinker even realized what was going on.

As they both raised their weapons to counter the droid forces they noticed that they were completely surrounded by the other gunships that had arrived to the area.

The two looked at each other for a moment, acknowledging that their time to go had come, Sinker's weapons wouldn't be powerful enough to do any damage to the flying vehicles and the Jedi master even with all his experience and skill couldn't hope to deflect all the blaster bolts that the rapid firing weapons of the gunships would spew in his weakened state.

"Sir… it's been an honor…" Sinker said as he shook his general's hand for a final time.

"Likewise, Sergeant…" Plo Koon said as he lowered his lightsaber in defeat and prepared to embrace the force.

After those words, the two men were pumped full of blaster holes by the multiple blaster cannons that the gunships sported, the fire was kept up for a few seconds to make sure that they would truly die.

Through all of it, Plo Koon didn't feel even the slightest of pain, even as his inner organs were cooked beyond recognition by the searing heat of the gunship's weapons, for he had already accepted his fate to leave the material world behind and become one with the force. And as he exhaled his last breath there was only one thought in his mind.

'There is no death, only the force…'

And then he was no more.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back onboard the Illusionist**

After the gunships had confirmed their kill, ST-ED had attempted recognizing the Jedi who was killed by cross referencing his face with all known Jedi in the CIS database and found out he was Jedi master Plo Koon, a senior member of the Jedi Council.

ST-ED decided that his findings were important enough to inform Count Dooku about them.

"Open a channel with Count Dooku." He ordered the pilot droid operating the communications console, who rapidly tapped several buttons to establish contact with the Malevolence and soon enough the holographic form of the Separatist leader appeared.

"ST-ED, do you have something of importance to report?"

"Yes, my lord. My forces have just eliminated the last members of the Republic survivors including their Jedi commander, something that General Grievous had a hard time accomplishing."

"Good, but I feel that your distaste for the good general isn't the only thing you wanted to discuss with me…"

"You would be correct my lord, through research and cross-referencing of our information databanks on all known Jedi, I was able to identify the Jedi that led this attack force, and the one we killed as Master Plo Koon, a known member of the Jedi Council on Coruscant."

The Count raised his eyebrows in surprise for a moment, as the news was broken to him before a large satisfied smile formed on his face.

"This is most excellent news, the death of someone of Master Plo Koon's stature is sure to cause a crippling blow to the the Jedi Council's ability to wage war against us, they will be hard pressed to find a replacement for someone like him." Dooku said in a delighted voice.

"What is our next move?" ST-ED asked, wanting to get back into action as soon as possible.

"The Republic is still unaware of our new weapon's existence or purpose, we must focus our efforts on continuing to maintain the element of surprise by striking against lightly defended targets to ensure that there are no survivors left to tell the tale. In addition I am putting you in command of The Malevolence." The sentence caused the tactical droid to be filled with hope. "…Alongside General Grievous until I can find other uses for him, so I expect you two to get along until then, farewell General." Dooku said as he crushed any trace of hope ST-ED had before cutting the call to leave for his solar sailer waiting in the heavy cruiser's hangar bay that would take him out of the system and back to his palace on Serenno.

To ST-ED that last sentence's words put together were in his most definite do-not-want-to-hear list of sentences.

He didn't want to work with the hotheaded cyborg leader any longer than he had to, but he'd swallow his frustration for now to please the Count and maximize the amount of damage he could do to the Republic by cooperating with his temporary ally before preferably getting back to working only amongst his fellow droids on other missions of importance.

At least the droids would understand him.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A Week Later**

**Heavy Cruiser Malevolence Supported By The 21****st**** Fleet**

**En Route To a Secret Republic Medical Facility In The Kaliida Nebula By Hyperspace**

An entire week had went by without much incident between the two generals of the Confederacy beyond disputes about who they should target and Grievous' usual bigotry towards his droid crew and the tactical droid, whom he considered to be his inferior. ST-ED considered Republic supply convoys and other legitimate military targets to be of greater importance while Grievous wanted to target medical convoys carrying wounded clones out of battle when they discussed their next target between missions.

Now they were heading towards a previously unknown Republic medical station that Count Dooku had recently informed them about, it was known to house thousands of wounded clones from battles around the galaxy, which when destroyed would dramatically increase the amount of enemy casualties that would be sustained outside of actual battle due to the wounded having no place to get treatment until more such facilities were built to accommodate them by the Republic.

ST-ED for once agreed with his cyborg counterpart that it was a suitable target, even if he could have likely come up with a dozen other ones that were just as good and that he already knew of prior to their assignment.

"Sir, the navicomputer indicates we only have one parsec to go." One of the pilot droids operating the navigation consoles reported in.

"Good, we will maximize the Republic's casualties with this attack."

"I only hope that they haven't already caught up to our plan and sent a fleet to defend the facility, it will endanger both my fleet and our continued element of surprise." ST-ED commented.

"You worry too much General ST-ED, this ship is more than a match for anything the Republic scum might throw against us and with your fleet to support us we are unstoppable."

"I wish I shared your enthusiasm and optimism, Grievous."

"Bah, it won't matter in the end, we are still destroying that station."

"Affirmative."

"Generals, we have arrived. Scanners indicate that the enemy doesn't have much in terms of defensive capabilities, only a squadron of fighters and several medical frigates are orbiting the station itself."

"Excellent, charge our main weapon and take out the frigates first, they will be unable to leave the system without any transport." Grievous said as he fiddled his fingers and chuckled darkly while ST-ED simply opted to order his fleet's ships to launch their own fighters to engage with the enemy's own.

"Jam their communications so they won't give away our locations or call in reinforcements." He added after sending the first order through the Droid Network.

"Belay that order." Grievous said to the pilot droids in charge of communications who looked at him in surprise. "Let the Republic come, they will just be lambs for the slaughter."

"Surely we must focus on keeping up the element of surprise, isn't that exactly what Count Dooku ordered us to do?" ST-ED pointed out.

"I don't know which one to listen to since they are both the same rank." One of the pilot battle droids whispered to the one next to him as the two Generals bickered amongst themselves.

"Sir, we've got incoming hostiles in sector four!" The droid from before shouted as a large fleet of Republic ships jumped into the system.

"Gah-! How did the Republic get here so fast!?" Grievous snarled in anger.

"They were expecting us, I'm afraid we might have an information leak on our hands." ST-ED said matter-of-factly.

"Well don't just stand there! Order your fleet to protect us!" Grievous shouted, not noticing that the Confederate fleet had already formed a protective barrier in front of the heavy cruiser.

"I've already done so through the local Droid Network, one of the benefits of being a tactical droid." ST-ED stated calmly to the frantic Grievous.

"Generals, our main weapon is fully charged."

"Fire at those medical frigates, don't let any of them escape!" Grievous shouted as the pulse cannon released its large energy wave towards the helpless pair of frigates attempting to flee towards open space until they were caught and had all their systems fried after which they were finished off by a barrage of turbolaser fire from the Malevolence's starboard side cannons.

"The enemy fleet is closing in, they are launching additional fighters."

"They will not take us or this ship down, charge up the ion cannon and get a targeting solution on the station!" Grievous shouted confidently as the two fleets clashed with each other.

"Roger, roger. Charging cannon."

"I hope you know what you are doing works, General. Because at the moment I am not very confident."

"Your confidence is not required! How long until the ion cannon is ready to fire!?"

"Charged at forty-five percent."

"Those enemy fighters are coming uncomfortably close…" The tactical droid worriedly pointed out as he saw the remains of the first enemy Y-Wing fighter squadron close in on the bridge tower of the massive warship."

'_Send more anti-fighter support to the Malevolence and chase away those Republic fighters before they blow up something important.'_ He messaged to all units through the Droid network, hoping some of them would come to their aid.

As if to answer his pleas a pair of Diamond-class cruisers swooped over the Malevolence with guns blazing, firing all weapons at the enemy fighter squadron, which quickly broke formation to avoid being completely obliterated after half of their six remaining fighters were destroyed.

"Ion cannon charge at eighty-nine percent."

"One of the enemy fighters is attempting to ram itself into the plasma coils of the ion cannon!"

"Shoot it down you imbeciles!" Grievous shouted furiously.

Fortunately before the fighter could even get near the ion cannon, the other diamond cruiser came in for another pass and smashed its bow section against it, causing the Y-wing to become nothing more than a burn stain on its hull as the two remaining fighters ran from the scene with their tails between their legs.

"Ion cannon fully charged, sir."

"Fire!" Both the droid and cyborg yelled at the same time as the weapon released the charge towards the helpless medical station, which after getting hit suddenly became a lot darker as all the lights and equipment dimmed inside from the loss of power.

"Now fire all of our weapons at it and finish it off so we can get out of here!" Grievous kept shouting commands as the fragile medical station was blown to bits.

"Our orders are to leave no witnesses, we still have to take care of the Republic fleet." The tactical droid pointed out as the remains of the medical station floated of into space alongside the bodies of the personnel working there.

The close call with the fighters had clearly shaken the resolve of the Kaleesh general who not too long ago had bragged about destroying the entire Republic fleet with just one ship.

"Charge the cannon once more and target the Republic fleet." ST-ED ordered the console operators who got to work, Grievous didn't protest.

'_All ships currently engaged with the Republic fleet, get clear of the ion cannon's range.'_

'_Roger, roger.' _OOM-29 and the other remaining command droids replied as the Confederate ships began spreading out to clear the way and give the ion cannon a clear shot to the massive Republic response fleet that was currently about to overwhelm with their two to one advantage in numbers what remained intact of the CIS fleet.

The Republic fleet's commander clearly saw what they were attempting to do and sent all remaining Y-Wings towards the heavy cruiser despite the amount of hostile fighters that were still protecting it while the GAR fleet's ships themselves quickly turned towards the open space to get a clear path for a jump to lightspeed.

With all of the remaining CIS navy assets firing on them, the Republic fighters were taking massive casualties every moment but despite it all they still kept going, not caring about the amount of flak they were being exposed to, their only goal being to buy their fleet enough time by attempting to destroy the game changer weapon of the Malevolence.

But alas, it was not to be as the last Y-wing was hit by the combined fire of several vultures that shot it to pieces right in front of the ion cannon.

"Ion cannon fully charged, we are ready to fire."

"Fire! Don't let the Republic dogs get away!" Grievous shouted as the fully charged weapon one last time the wave of ion energy towards the Republic fleet.

But just as the wave was getting near them, the Republic fleet jumped into hyperspace, leaving behind a crippled but victorious droid fleet.

"**Rraaaaagh!"** Grievous bellowed to the heavens in anger as the gravity of the situation finally dawned on him.

"It seems… we have finally been discovered..." ST-ED pointed out the obvious and

Grievous had to fight back the urge to punch his colleague's head in with his fist.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Three Days Later**

**Coruscant**

**Jedi Temple**

**Spire 3**

**Situation Room**

"So, we've finally found the reason for so many of our fleets vanishing." Master Windu commented as Obi-Wan and Anakin both finished their report about the incident with the Separatist super weapon in Kaliida Nebula.

"Yes, we also believe this ship to be the reason for the destruction of Master Plo Koon's fleet among others, including those carrying wounded clones." Obi-Wan speculated from the other side of the holocomm, referring to the recently deceased Kel Dor Jedi master whose frozen corpse had been found in the Abregado system amongst the debris of the fleet he had been commanding

"Unusually tidy, have the Separatists been with these attacks. Glad I am, to finally know the reason." Yoda said.

"As do all of us, but how do you propose we counter this weapon and its effects?" Master Ki-Adi Mundi asked everyone assembled.

"A small strike team could probably get inside the ship while its docked and blow it up from the inside, or at least disable its main weapon so our fleets can move in and finish it off." Anakin suggested.

"A bold plan, but one that might just work." Windu commented, somewhat approvingly.

"First we will have to find that ship though, it seems to be constantly on the move and that way difficult to track down." Obi-Wan said.

"Wait a minute… I just realized something!" Anakin exclaimed as everyone else present in the conversation turned to look at him in confusion. "The cruiser leading the fleet that was accompanying the Malevolence, I've seen it before."

"Really, where?" Obi-Wan asked, already knowing what his friend was referring to.

"It's that damn droid commander ST-ED's flagship! It was last reported having been seen at the battle of Krant! You can't just forget a ship that is completely missing a bridge and life support systems while still operating normally."

"And?"

"Its base of operations is on Raxus Prime, at least according to our latest intelligence reports."

"You really think they will be heading there?" Windu asked skeptically.

"They will need replenishments for their fleet after the beating they got from our forces at Kaliida, and Raxus Prime is a pretty busy staging area for the Separatists. It's currently the best lead we have." Anakin finished his theorizing.

"Hmm… convinced I am of the potential of this plan." Yoda voiced his approval.

"As am I." Master Mundi joined in and soon did everyone else, including the normally hard-to-convince skeptic Windu.

"It is decided then, we will assemble a small strike team to infiltrate the Malevolence and if our hunch proves to be correct destroy it while it is orbit above Raxus Prime." Obi-Wan repeated the plan out loud to everyone and received several nods in response. "Good, may the force be with you all."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**In Orbit of Raxus Prime**

**21****st**** Fleet Remnant &amp; The Malevolence**

Before even arriving back to Raxus Prime, ST-ED had already sent in a combat report back to Count Dooku, which also contained the details about Grievous' defiance of direct orders, unprofessional conduct of the operation and how his actions cost the 21st fleet over half its previous numbers along with video and audio recording collected from the droids onboard including himself as evidence to support his accusations. Adding to that, that it was Grievous who had caused the Malevolence to be discovered in the first place because he would not agree to jam the Republic communications, as he wanted to face the Republic response fleet head-on without thinking of the possible consequences.

His response was pretty straightforward, the cyborg general was relieved of command of the Malevolence and he would be replaced by an old acquaintance of the droid general; Sev'rance Tann whom had been doing other missions alongside the other dark acolytes and henchmen that Dooku had employed under his command like his personal assassin Assajj Ventress.

The Chiss general's personality had taken a change for the better, at least in ST-ED's opinion, as time had went on, she had become more patient and less prone to outbursts when she came across problems. She had clearly been humbled by the harsh treatments and the near-death experiences she received both on Krant from ST-ED who almost choked her to death with his bare hands and back on Serenno from her master who almost fried her to a crisp with his force lightning.

To help break the ice, she had sent an actual genuine apology to the droid prior to her assignment onboard the Malevolence and at the moment the tactical droid was eagerly waiting for the Chiss general's shuttle to arrive into the system alongside the new fleet of ships sent to reinforce the ones 21st lost in the previous battle.

All was quiet onboard the Malevolence's bridge save the occasional chatter the pilot droids had amongst themselves, ST-ED had also drawn up plans to have the cumbersome bridge section removed completely just as he did with his flagship after he got the approval from the higher ups in the chain of command to do so, it was their ship after all and they had a right to keep an eye on their investment.

He'd still have to keep the life support systems onboard though no matter the final decision of the bureaucrats further up in the food chain, for obvious reasons.

The Network soon informed him that a single Sheathipede-class shuttle had just arrived into the system from hyperspace; a large fleet of Confederate naval ships of different classes and tonnages followed it soon afterwards.

"Sir, we've just received a message from General Tann's shuttle." One of the pilot droids informed him. "She's requesting permission to come aboard."

"Permission granted, open up the hangar bay shields and let her through."

"Roger, roger." The droid crew responded as they began rapidly tapping the controls to open up the ray shield blocking the hangar bay entrance.

"I'll be heading to the hangar bay to meet the General. OOM-311, you have the bridge while I am away."

"Yes, sir." The command droid answered as ST-ED left through the doorway.

ST-ED walked through the hallways like he was an organic taking a walk in the park, he had his hands behind his back and not really thinking about anything related to the ongoing war, which to remind himself his creator had said he had to survive during the last time he spoke to his creation.

That caused him to pause for a moment and stop walking in the middle of taking a step, while the droid crewmembers walked past him.

Just what was this feeling… this emotion he was experiencing… he didn't have a word to name it, he could only attempt to search for it through both the CIS database and the galaxy-wide holonet.

As he continued to walk he kept searching for a single word that would best describe the feeling he felt when processing information about his creator or his "homeworld" Geonosis.

That is until finally he came across a dictionary; there he entered several words to describe the emotion he was having until he found something that resembled it perfectly…

…Sadness.

Sadness, sad, saddened, saddening… those were all forms of a word that described the feeling he experienced when processing memories about the man who had created him and his world of origin, Geonosis, which had been burnt to the ground by the Republic.

'But why?' He thought

'Why had the GAR felt it necessary to destroy the home planet of a species that had never been known to attack anyone?'

The Republic's official reason was a pre-emptive strike because according to them, the droids being produced in the Geonosian foundries were going to be used to attack the Republic, so they decided to strike first.

'But they didn't have proof to back their claims, they never did, they attacked an entire planet and the people living on it unprovoked to save the three people the Confederacy had caught; two Jedi and a senator, who were found to be conducting espionage for the Republic, on foreign soil nonetheless, and were to be executed as spies according to local legislature.' He justified in his mind the actions of the red planet's natives.

The tactical droid had been so deep in thought about his past and newly discovered emotions that he hadn't even noticed he had arrived into the hangar bay a while ago and General Tann's shuttle was already landing there.

He kept walking until he reached the other side of the ship where the boarding ramp lowered and out walked the female Chiss general with a small smile on her face.

"General ST-ED, it's good to see you again." She said in a pleasant tone as she shook the tactical droid's hand.

"Likewise ma'am, shall we go to the bridge?" ST-ED responded as he returned the handshake.

"Of course." The Chiss woman replied and began following after the droid through the long hallways of the Subjugator-class vessel.

"So, I heard you had to share command with General Grievous prior to my assignment here… how was that like?" She asked from the droid as they walked through the dim hallways of the large capital ship.

"There were some… disagreements about tactical decisions, which led to Lord Dooku assigning him to… other places of interest." The droid explained.

Before the Malevolence's new second commander could even really begin asking any real questions they were interrupted by ST-ED receiving a message from OOM-29, who was currently in charge of patrolling the local system for Republic infiltrators or spies.

'_Sir, an unregistered freighter just entered into the system we think it a might be a civilian one, but it doesn't have any markings or identification tagging to mark it as one. How should we proceed?'_

'_This is troubling indeed, keep a close eye on it and be ready to blow it to smithereens if they try anything funny. It may just be some smugglers but I'm not taking any risks with the safety of the Malevolence.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

"What was that all about?" Tann asked the droid as he turned his attention back to her again.

"My second-in-command just informed me about a suspicious freighter that entered the system, no registration codes, no markings, no ID, no nothing. It's just a clean slate that is off all known ship records." The tactical droid informed her as they entered the bridge.

"OOM-311, meet General Sev'rance Tann. She's the new second commander of this fleet and your commanding officer." ST-ED introduced the Sith lady to the command droid.

"Roger, roger sir. Glad to have you onboard ma'am." The command droid said with a clumsy right hand salute.

Tann simply opted nod in the droid's direction as a response before turning back towards ST-ED.

"I assume you have already gotten yourself acquinted with the vessels functions while arriving here?" ST-ED asked her.

"Yes, I've already gone through the schematics that Lord Dooku provided for me and know the ship quite well."

"Good, as soon as we finish getting everything ready with the rest of the fleet, we'll be heading to the surface to observe a test run of something I've been working on for a while now…"

'_Uh, sir.'_

'_Not now, OOM-29.'_

'_I'm afraid the situation requires your immediate attention, the freighter has just changed course and is heading straight towards the Malevolence.'_

'_Will you be able to intercept it in time?'_

'_I'm afraid not, sir. You'll have to deal with these intruders on your own for now, we'll try to send assistance if we can.'_

'_See to it that you do.'_

"What is it now?"

"We've got uninvited visitors coming onboard…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**


	5. Chapter 5

**More Than Just a Clanker**

**A/N: **

**Elinor Nightshade: "****I like how you're not afraid to kill off cannon jedi! I am a bit of a sep myself."**

**This one right here is exactly what I mean by well thought out reviews, because it actually tells what the reader liked about the story and bonus points for actually providing reasons for why they liked it. Thank you Elinor, these kinds of reviews are always nice to get and I'm happy you liked the previous chapter :).**

**Keep them coming folks, I always read my reviews and I'll respond to those that have something to say beyond generally complementing the story… unless they are asking me to spoil the future plot, that stuff is off limits for me. Sorry bruto22 and guest.**

Chapter 5 – Price Paid In Blood

**Raxus System**

**Onboard The G9 Rigger Freighter "Twilight"**

**Republic Strike Team Led By Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker And His Padawan Ahsoka Tano**

**Mission: Inflitrate The Separatist Heavy Cruiser Malevolence**

**Makeup Of The Twelve-Man Clone Squad:**

**Captain CT-7567 "Rex", Commanding Officer**

**Corporal CT-1256 "Lift", Heavy Trooper**

**Private CT-2518 "Muck", Demolitions Expert**

**Private CT-1920 "Rad", Medic**

**Private CT-3491 "Buck", Engineer**

**Private CT-9031 "Dax", Marine**

**Private CT-5592 "Binary", Tech Expert**

**Private CT-2187 "Smiles", Scout**

**Private CT-0978 "Digger", Regular**

**Private CT-4200 "Blazer", Marine**

**Private CT-6969 "Dime", Regular**

**Private CT-7891 "Decker" Marine**

"…And don't divert from the designated co—!" The droid traffic operator at the other end was silenced as Anakin simply shut off the communication, while turning the freighter hard towards left where the massive warship was docked.

"Thanks, I was getting tired off that guy yelling at us all the time…" Ahsoka said in approval while she sat on the co-pilot seat. "So… do we go the obvious or the sneaky route then?" She asked her master as he steered hard to right to avoid an incoming piece of debris.

"What if I told you we'd be using both?" Anakin asked her in his usual smugly confident tone.

"I'd probably pose a question back and ask how we are going to do that." She answered while R2-D2 kept beeping on about incoming enemy fighters.

"Yes Artoo I know we have incoming Vultures, Rex and the others already taking care of it." Anakin said referring to the clones who were climbing onto the controls of the defense turrets. "Well, we're going to drop you off at the ship's bottom where the garbage disposal tunnel is located at." He said while spinning the ship in a barrel roll motion to avoid being hit by a homing anti-aircraft missile the Separatist capital ship had launched just moments before.

"Wait, garbage disposal?! I'm not crawling through a smelly tunnel, yuck." She said while pinching her nose and imitating a flapping motion with her hand.

"Sorry but you're the smaller one, you're better suited for crawling through tight space." Her master replied back while avoiding the continuous turbolaser fire coming from the multiple guns of the Malevolence as they turned to target the nimble freighter.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm going." The Togrutan said as she got off her seat and headed for the cargo bay and past the clones that were firing towards the droid fighters chasing them.

Just as the transport ship passed by its first target and after strapping on a re-breather mask and a backpack filled with explosives, Ahsoka jumped across the space between the two vessels and climbed inside the open garbage tunnel entrance after the last of the incoming trash had been spit out from it, beginning her long journey up the cramped passageway as the panel behind her was sealed shut.

'Man, this place smells worse than a passed-out drunk covered in bantha poo.' She thought while attempting to both pinch her nose and climb with her other hand through the slippery tunnel obviously failing, so she reluctantly let go of her nose to get out of the horribly smelling passageway faster.

She was right at the exit when she felt her ears twitch as she heard chatter coming from two battle droids that were conversing inside the room she was headed to.

"I heard from one of the pilots operating on the bridge that the general is thinking of upgrading the fleet's forces with some designs he made himself." One of them said, Ahsoka decided that this was important enough to listen to. So she forced herself to not puke from the smell she had to continue to endure and record everything that was being said.

"Really? Did he say anything about possibly upgrading our targeting computers? You know, so we could actually hit something for once." The other one of the pair asked.

"Not that I know of, but he mentioned the new design to that Chiss lady when they were conversing on the bridge, I also heard she'll be the new second commander." The droid explained, totally oblivious to the fact that he was being listened to.

"Master, are you getting all this?" Ahsoka whispered to her comm. unit as the two droids kept talking.

"Yeah, guess we know where the ship's commander is now…"Anakin replied while he landed the freighter into the hangar bay, the clones had scored a hit on the shield emitters projecting the ray shield blocking access to it a moment ago, causing to dissipate and allowing them access to the ship.

While she was trying to get into a better position, her leg slipped and slammed against the wall of the garbage disposal tube, alerting the two droids who stopped conversing to investigate.

"Did you hear something…?" The one in the back asked.

"I'm not sure, its like there's someone in the sh…" The droid was cut off in the middle of a sentence as the Togruta's green lightsaber activated and sliced off his head.

The other B1 raised its blaster to open fire and sent a warning about an intruder through the local Droid Network before he was sliced in half by the Jedi who had quickly closed the distance by jumping straight at the droid.

"Well… that was easy." Ahsoka said out loud, not noticing a camera in the garbage disposal room's corner was watching her.

The droid brain in charge of the ship's surveillance marked both her and the strike team exiting from the freighter in the hangar bay as a high-level security threats and triggered a ship-wide alarm through the intercom as a response.

"Attention all crew, Republic forces have breached the perimeter on decks two and three, scramble all security forces to the designated areas." It boomed through the hallways to all droid patrols currently traversing the hallway and the ones inactive in the cargo bay area containers as they were activated.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**In the hangar bay**

The twelve man squad of clones that were accompanying the two Jedi were all experienced veterans who had fought in the galaxy-wide conflict since its very beginning and each of them had been handpicked by the chosen one himself specifically for their skills, which were measurable to those of the highly trained elite of the Republic's military, the Advanced Recon Commandos, which their commanding officer Rex was actually part off.

That skill was the very reason why they were currently having a much easier time when defending their foothold inside the hangar bay from the droid crew, because unlike the droids they were actually scoring a kill with every shot they made, mowing down dozens of regular B1 battle droids that were pouring in from the hangar bay entrances with their DC-15A rifles its carbine variants DC-15S' while their Jedi commander pushed the enemy line further and further back by cutting his way past the machines with his blue lightsaber, occasionally stopping to deflect the incoming blaster bolts back at their senders.

Even a Vulture droid that landed into the hangar bay and switched to its walker mode to better return fire didn't slow the strike team down for long, for they had prepared for everything as the droid force soon learned when the Vulture blew up after being hit by a detonite warhead courtesy to "Muck", the squad's resident demolitions expert who had used one of the few rounds for the PLX-1 missile launcher he had reserved for this mission.

"It seems we are in the clear for now, sir." Rex said to his Jedi commander after the droids finally stopped coming into the hangar bay.

"Check your ammo and reload if needed, we're moving out in three." Anakin said while deactivating his lightsaber and coming back to the hangar bay to check on his men.

"Roget that, sir."

As the clones were reloading and doing double checks on their equipment, Anakin decided to contact his Padawan to check on her progress.

"Ahsoka, report. What's your status?"

There was nothing but static at the other end.

"Come on Snips, answer me…"

Still no one responded back.

"Ahsoka are you there!?"

"I'm afraid your… Padawan, will be busy for the moment, Skywalker." A deeper female voice answered.

Anakin's heart sank as he heard the unfamiliar voice respond to his call and he already feared the worst.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**In A 2****nd**** Deck Hallway**

"What have you done to her? Where's is she?!" Anakin angrily shouted into his comm. unit.

Sev'rance who was currently holding the struggling Togruta Padawan in the air with her force choke ability, simply laughed darkly back at the Jedi Knight while several of the battle droids under her command confiscated Ahsoka's green lightsaber.

"Now, now… that is not a tone you use when speaking to someone holding your Padawan's life in their hands." Sev'rance replied back as she tightened her grip around the young Jedi's throat, after which she soon fell unconscious and the dark acolyte dropped her harshly to the cold floor where ST-ED picked her up and hoisted on his left shoulder for carry. "Besides, she's doing quite peachy even if she is a bit unresponsive at the moment." The Chiss said with amusement clear from her voice "But a fair warning, try anything we don't like and bad things happen to her, understand?" She said, switching to a darker tone in the blink of an eye.

"Now… I'd love to stay and chat longer but I and General ST-ED still have a ship to command, goodbye." She finished and crushed the communicator under her boot heel as Anakin tried to shout back to her in anger.

As the two commanders walked through the hallway, ST-ED decided to do a few test swings with the new lightsaber he had acquired from the Padawan and see if it looked or felt any different compared to the one he had received from the Selkath Jedi Erus Kieol during his surrender at the end of the ground battle of Raxus Prime.

Activating the green blade he could immediately notice a difference in the fact that it was shorter compared to the older one he had but its hilt was also of lighter design, the blade itself was much smoother and stable indicating it was clearly designed for agility over cutting power.

"You seem to be liking your new prize." Sev'rance noted as she observed the droid take several experimental swings while they walked through the hallways.

"I've had a fascination for these weapons you Sith and Jedi carry for quite some time, they all seem to be custom made and of production quality significantly higher to that of the mass-produced blasters me and the other droids carry." ST-ED replied back to her. "I wish to someday be able enough to use them effectively in combat."

"That is going to take some time, maybe I could teach you at some point." Tann said to the droid.

"That would be acceptable." The droid replied back as the group went past the ship's armory where ST-ED used the Droid Network to get himself some thermal charges that he strapped onto the Jedi, much to the confusion of his organic counterpart.

"We'll be luring Skywalker in by threatening to kill his Padawan, the Jedi masters are way too attached to their apprentices for their own good… this very same tactic worked without a hitch on Krant as you might remember and it should still work now. Unless I have miscalculated and the Jedi have actually started to use that organ known as brains that you organics have." He explained to the Sith, who grudgingly agreed with his sentiment and even chuckled a bit at his last statement.

After arriving to the detention area from the armory, the tactical droid opted to simply throw the rigged and unconscious body of the Padawan inside one of the cells and block the entrance with a ray shield.

"I've linked the detonator trigger to my systems, I can detonate the explosive at any point and it will also automatically detonate should my basic functions shut down at any point, which is a likely scenario when dealing with someone of Skywalker's caliber. All the cells are also monitored so if the Padawan tries to defuse the explosives strapped on her, she will only end up getting herself blown up prematurely."

"A quite foolproof plan, if the Skywalker attempts to rescue his Padawan, she dies and he will end up an emotional wreck. If he attempts to destroy the ship or kill you, she dies and rinse and repeat." Sev'rance rubbed her chin in thought while she went through the droid's plan of action.

"Precisely."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back With The Republic Strike Team**

After hearing that the Ahsoka had been captured, the Rex and the other clones offered to finish the job while Anakin went to look for her, with the help of the schematics of the ship that had been leaked to them by a defecting Separatist ship engineer they had been able to reach the engine department of the ship without much incident by crawling through the ventilation ducts.

The tactical droid commander of the ship had quite unfortunately outsmarted them in this case and placed multiple ambushes of hidden droidekas and super battle droids in the area that had at the first few times caught them by surprise and they had initially taken several casualties and were currently down to nine clones from the original twelve.

The group's medic "Rad" had been unfortunately amongst the ones killed, having been killed by a B2's tri shot function in close quarters that had hit him straight in the head making a large smoking hole on the front part of his helmet and burning his face into an unrecognizable pulp of flesh and bone.

"Detonator out!" Rex yelled as he threw the V-1 under the droideka pinning his squad down and was rewarded by a satisfying explosion as the detonator went off inside the shield bubble of the heavy-duty droid model and caused it to be blown up into tiny pieces that flew into every which direction.

"That's the last of them, place the explosives and let's move on to the next objective." Rex ordered the rest of his team while finishing off some of the surviving droids that were still twitching on the ground.

"Yes, sir." The others responded as they went to help Muck with planting the charges around the main engine core that was usually powering the Malevolence but was currently shut down due to the ship being docked to the space station.

The clone officer figured that they couldn't simply blow the ship up while it was docked in fear of risking damaging the station and possibly killing innocent civilians in the process.

But even as they were placing the explosives, the sensors spread around the room were still watching them, they had failed to eliminate them all and those very sensors were constantly feeding the Droid Network information about them and highlighting their location to all droid forces inside the ship.

Once more, the droid general had been a step ahead of them.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**2****nd**** Deck**

Under orders from ST-ED a fireteam of B1 battle droids were placing barricades made out of anything they could find on the ship and gathered it around their double-barrel repeating blaster to form a makeshift defensive position and possibly slow the Jedi down so the two generals could finish with their preparations.

"After we're done with this, no Jedi or clone is going to get through here." The red painted OOM-series security battle droid working as the fireteam's NCO said confidently while standing behind one of the battle droids manning the repeater.

"Instead of boasting about the impenetrability of this thing you could instead help us build it…" A B1 grumbled from the back while carrying a heavy looking metal table with the help of his comrade.

'_Sergeant 3O4-211, the Jedi is heading your way through the elevator I suggest you and your team get ready for his arrival.'_ ST-ED informed the security droid through the network.

'_Roger, roger.'_

"Get ready, the Jedi is headed our way!"

"Roger, roger. We're ready for him." The droid manning the repeater replied back while the other four droids got set up with their rifles around the stationary weapon.

3O4-211 stood behind them with his Shotgun variant of the standard E-5 at the ready and aimed towards the elevator, waiting for it to open up.

Soon enough, the elevator doors opened up and the droids immediately unleashed hell on it with their weapons, only stopping their fire when their weapons had to be reloaded or in the repeater's case had overheated.

"I can't see anything through the smoke! Did we get him?" One of the droids set up next to the repeater asked his comrades.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" The droid NCO said and as if to confirm his fears a lightsaber visibly activated through the smoke and the Jedi jumped straight over the barricade and in to the midst of the droids attempting to put up resistance.

"He's right there, blast him!" 3O4-211 shouted desperately while slowly backing down as his small group was being cut down by the Jedi's blue blade.

"This is hopeless! Run for your lives!" The droid that had previously manned the repeater ran to the opposite direction before he was cut in half mid-step by a lightsaber.

"D-don't dare come any closer… I'm warning you." The droid NCO said as he pointed his shotgun towards the Jedi and began rapidly taking steps backwards after noticing his entire fireteam had been taken down in less than half a minute.

The Jedi simply looked towards the security droid with pure hatred radiating from his eyes as he closed the distance, deflecting every blast the droid sent his way with his blade before finally decapitating the droid in a single swift strike.

"I'm coming Ahsoka, just hold on…" He said as he sprinted through the dark empty hallways and towards the detention area where he could sense his Padawan through the force.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Meanwhile With Rex's Squad**

After setting up the explosives to the engine core, the clones had taken the dedicated rail system that spread across the entire ship and headed towards the ammunition storage facilities used to house proton torpedoes, tibanna gas containers and a large variety of different slug rounds for the All-Purpose Mass Driver Cannons or flak guns, as they were more commonly known.

Their use of the rail system hadn't gone unnoticed though and they were currently being chased by an entire squad of rocket battle droids that were taking constant potshots at the group of clones.

"We gotta get rid of these damn clankers before one of us is killed by a stray shot!" Rex shouted as the clones kept returning fire, succeeding in downing one of their agile pursuers.

"Or before we all die if these explosives detonate prematurely!" Muck yelled over the gunfire, referring to the backpack he was carrying that was still filled to the brim with thermal charges.

"Now arriving to; ammunition storage on deck one." The monotone announcer voice sounded off inside the train car as it neared its destination.

"Finally, we can get off this speeding death trap." The squad's heavy trooper "Lift" said after downing the remaining two rocket droids with his Z-6 blaster cannon, and watched as they fell down into the dark chasm below. "Good timing too."

"Alright, everyone get ready. The Seps are sure to be waiting for us when we arrive." Rex said, readying his twin DC-17 heavy blaster pistols for combat as the train car screeched to a halt in front of the small hub in the middle of the ship housing the ammunition for the various weaponry the ship used.

"You have arrived." The automated voice sounded off again and Lift opted to simply smash the speaker broadcasting the messages with the butt of his weapon so he wouldn't have to listen to the annoying voice anymore.

"A little bit too harsh don't you think?" Muck jokingly said to him, he didn't give his comrade the satisfaction of getting an answer.

"Let's clear the room on the other side, stack up." Rex ordered the other eight clones as they got into formation behind the door, with Muck placing a breaching charge on it.

Counting down from five with his fingers, Rex finally formed a fist to signal the detonation and the thick metal door was blown inwards, crushing a single battle droid standing on guard at the other side under it as it flew through the air, opting the other ones that didn't get hit by it to open fire in response.

"Go, go, go!" The clone captain shouted to his men as they ran through the doorway and into cover inside the room while being pinned down by a repeating blaster cannon located in the middle of the droid position.

"We can't risk using detonators in here or we risk blowing up the munitions containers in here and us along with it" Muck pointed out while ducking down to avoid getting his head shot off.

"Agreed. Everyone, switch to your droid poppers and let 'em fly!" Rex shouted over the blasterfire as everyone in the squad took out their EMP grenades and threw them into the midst of the droid positions.

The battle droids looked at the little devices at their feet with dumbfounded curiosity before they had their systems fried and shut down as the electro magnetic pulse was released.

Soon enough all of the droids defending the area were down for the count and the clones got out from behind cover to finish their work before moving onto their next objective.

But as their luck would have it, they were getting no break as a second railcar arrived to the storage hub, carrying a group of super battle droids accompanied by a trio of chameleon droids that quickly vanished into thin air after the supers had gotten off the transport and went to work on eliminating the clone squad.

Muck, who was busy setting up a charge onto one of the containers didn't notice a shimmering form appear in the space behind him before it was too later, he never even had a chance to defend himself as the combined fire of the chameleon droids three blasters mercilessly cut him down.

"What the kriff was that?" Lift said to the others as he hoisted his gun up and went to check what was wrong with muck, finding only the smoking corpse of his former brother-in-arms.

"Muck's dead!" He shouted to everyone else who quickly retrieved their weapons and ran to the heavy trooper's position to see that the former demolition expert was indeed dead.

"What the hell did this?" Buck asked as Rex went to check his dead comrade's corpse.

"Shot clean through his back, never even had the chance to resist. This is the work of a trained assassin… or something that can blend into the environment pretty damn well…"

"You think it could be chameleon droids." Lift offered his explanation after remembering his previous encounter with them at the battle of Ilum.

"Could be, everyone keep your eyes sharp and move in groups of three to be safe. We're not alone in here." Rex ordered as the rest of his squad went back to work except Lift, who watched his back while he finished setting up the explosives.

Buck, Dax and Dime went to check the entrance to the storage hub, only to find the super battle droids that were waiting for them there.

"Contact! Super battle droids at the entrance!" Dax yelled into his comm. unit to warn Rex and the others.

"Hold them off, we're almost done here!"

"Yes, sir!"

The trio decided to use the Separatists' own weapon against them and manned the repeater left over from the previous battle and opened fire on the super battle droids shooting at them, managing to down several of them before one of the droids that was toting a launcher arm fired a warhead towards the clones manning the repeater.

"Incoming!" Dime yelled as the rocket smashed into their position and destroyed the repeater, killing Buck who was operating it along with it and grievously wounding Dax.

"Sir, we just lost Buck! Dax is wounded and the droids are overrunning our position!" Dime yelled into his comm. as he dragged his wounded comrade behind one of the heavy containers.

"We copy you, we're all headed your way now." Rex replied back.

"Come on Dax, stay with me, we're gonna get through this." Dime desperately tried to comfort his comrade as he was going into shock due to having a piece of shrapnel embedded into his gut.

"Be…hind…you…" The mortally wounded Dax muttered weakly, pointing his hand towards the chameleon droid pair that was materializing behind the pair before he went limp much to the sorrow of his comrade.

Dime, who was still holding the hand of his recently deceased brother-in-arms proved to be easy prey to the two chameleon droids after he failed to reach for his weapon in time and was pumped full of blaster fire as a result and joined Dax in death as his corpse fell on top of the other clone.

The five remaining clones of the original twelve-man squad arrived to the scene too late to stop the droids from overrunning their defensive position and were forced to retreat back deeper into the storage room with the droid forces in hot on their heels and blasters constantly firing when spotting their targets.

Eventually after running around the area long enough, they came across a smaller transport rail line that was used to move the ammunition containers to their final destinations, the weapon batteries.

"Quick, look for an empty container we can use one of them to get out of here before the clankers completely surround us." Rex ordered everyone as they tried to find a large enough container to fit all of them inside it.

"Sir, I think I got something!" Lift said as he tapped a large several meter tall grey durasteel container.

"Good, push it over there and attach it to the rail, Binary will then get the thing ready to move after which we all get inside it. Everybody got that?" Rex quickly explained his plan to everyone.

"Yes, sir."

Soon after the container was locked into place and the tech-savvy clone hacked into the droid systems to bypass the need for an ID code that allowed access to all of the necessary systems.

Since the container was open topped, all the clones had to do was climb inside it and they were ready to go, as the container slowly got moving from the platform that it stood on, Rex reached his hand out to Binary who ran as fast as he could towards it to reach safety in time.

Much to the group's shock, just as he was about to get a good grip from Rex's hand, he was shot in the back by the super battle droids arriving to the scene.

"Binary!" Rex yelled in vain as yet another one of his brethren was shot down by the droid forces and fell off the side of the platform, falling into the abyss below.

Rex had to get back inside the container to avoid getting shot himself as the droids continued firing at him with their arm-mounted blasters.

The mood inside of the container was grim to say the least, only a third of the original squad remained and they still had two objectives to visit before they could get off the ship.

"I don't know about you guys, but our odds at the moment don't seem that favourable." Lift said.

"You kidding? We're utterly screwed at this point! We're only halfway through our objectives and we've already lost two thirds of our squad!" Blazer shouted back in anger while taking off his helmet.

"Calm down! Bickering amongst ourselves won't solve anything." Rex said as he got between the two. "We're supposed to be professionals so you better start acting like it." He said, receiving nods from the rest of the survivors.

"Remember, we were all chosen for this operation not because we are expendable, but we are good at what we do." Rex continued while taking off his helmet. "And if we quit now, Smiles… Muck... Dax… Rad… Binary… all of their sacrifices will have been in vain." He said, listing off several of the clones who had already given their lives during the mission. "So I say we keep going until the end and finish this mission or we kriffing die trying! Who's with me?"

"I am." Lift immediately stood up.

"So am I, sir." Decker said while standing up as well.

"And I as well." Blazer finally said.

"Alright then… Let's finish this once and for all." Rex said as he put his helmet back on alongside everyone else.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: That sure was an intense chapter wasn't it, even if it was as short as it was (just under 5000 words.)**

**I don't usually like writing from the Republic's point of view (We already have enough of those with other stories,) but I think this chapter was the most fun to write so far because it actually proved a challenge for me to attempt to write the clones' personalities and abilities believably. (I just hope I proved satisfactory in that regard.)**

**So, let us see what the future brings us with the next chapter shall we?**

**For now, MarxistFIN is signing out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**More Than Just A Clanker**

**A/N: I'll be responding to reviewers again, just a quick note to those who sent reviews as a quest though, please make actual accounts for so it will be easier to differentiate between all the quest reviews and not address everyone as just "quest" and answering questions through PMs is much more convenient than having to put all of them into the chapters where they take space away from the actual story.**

**Anyways, onto the questions:**

**TCW Version:**

**Quest nr.1: "****You know I just realize that dok just wanted a perfect droid created and isnt really a bad guy to begin with if his droid survive"**

**Fix your grammar.**

**Yes, he was just a man with a simple dream who happened to be working for the side that the Republic didn't like him to. So that's why he's dead now, for working with the wrong people.**

**Quest nr.2 (probably the same guy): "****oh boy I like how sted isn't taking any chances for survivors and I like the idea of sted wielding a lightsaber maybe the next grievous is coming"**

**1\. Again, fix your grammar you didn't even bother to use any capital letters or even spell ST-ED's name correctly.**

**2\. Why exactly did you think he's going to be the "next grievous"? He absolutely despises the guy! Why would he want to become just like the one he hates? Haven't you ever heard of things like… oh… I dunno, IG-110 Lightsaber Droids or the EG-5 Jedi Hunter Droid? I'm actually using the expanded universe to get most of the things in this story instead of just the cartoon series or the movies.**

**Quest nr.3: "****Thank you. I am getting tired of all the pro republic stories."**

**Well I'm glad some people agree with me that there's an overabundance of stories focusing on only the Republic when the Clone Wars were such a huge batch of grey in galactic history where both sides were pretty much corrupt and there were no real "good guys" to begin with.**

**Quest nr.4: "****I been thinking what does sted look like in this story is he a super tactic droid of his kind"**

**Your question has already been answered if you've visited my Deviantart page, the link to that is in my profile. And I think I'd have put a Super Tactical Droid character tag to this story if those were in this story but considering this is still pretty early in the Clone Wars they wouldn't have been introduced yet.**

**Movie Section:**

**Atraxotax "****Apart from a severe lack of environmental description, this is pretty good. Visuals are extremely lacking."**

**I've never been really good at describing environments or pretty much anything with words, that's why I usually draw illustrative pictures of the characters and equipment of my own design that are in my stories and post those illustrations to my Deviantart page so people can see what they look like. Concerning the environments people just have to use their imagination to fill in the gaps most of the time.**

**Now that that is done, on to the story…**

Chapter 6 – Live Or Die, Make Your Choice…

After cutting down the last of the super battle droids guarding the detention area, Anakin stepped in through the doorway and into the dark interior.

The whole cellblock was completely without any lighting as he began his trek through it to find his Padawan, there weren't even any battle droids guarding it.

'Something seems very wrong here, I can just feel it.' He thought with worry as he kept walking across the metal floor, his blue lightsaber lighting the way as he went.

After going through the entire first area without coming across nearly anything, he walked through the door leading to the next one before it slid shut loudly along with the one on the other side.

'What the kriff is going on…' He mused, angry and confused from the sudden turn of events.

The answer to his question seemed to come almost immediately after he thought about it as a recon probe lowered down from one of the narrow ventilation shafts, carrying a holocommunicator in one of its slim metal appendages.

He stared at the probe for a moment before the communicator lit up and out of it came the holographic presentation of Sev'rance Tann.

"Hello, general Skywalker…"

"You…" The Jedi Knight said with malice as he glared at the form in front of him.

"Yes, me… me, me, me…" The Chiss dark acolyte replied with a mockingly toned chuckle.

"What have you done to Ahsoka… where is she?" Anakin said in a threatening tone as he continued to glare towards his opponent.

"Right here." She said before snapping her fingers and the lights came on, revealing the unconscious body of Ahsoka in the cell on his immediate left.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin yelled as he went to reach for the control panel of the ray shield.

"Ah, ah, ah… not so fast Skywalker..." Sev'rance said as the lights on the charges of Ahsoka's vest lit up and began flashing and beeping at an increasing pace.

Anakin saw what she was doing and stopped just short of pressing the button that would remove the ray shield from his way. The beeping died down soon afterwards.

"Good boy… now, here's the name of the game…" Sev'rance began her monologue "Either you can take your Padawan and leave this ship without a hitch."

"Or you can go and help your little team of clones and attempt to complete the objective you originally came here to do." She continued while a feed from the communicator was displayed showing the clones who were obviously in trouble with their mission, blaster fire was going off everywhere around them and their position was getting rapidly surrounded by the droid forces no matter how many of the machine soldiers they were able to gun down with their weapons.

"Why should I even trust a word you say? You're a Sith, not exactly the most trustworthy of people." He said skeptically.

"What do you really have to lose?" She asked with almost sickening amusement. "Besides… are you really going to bet your Padawan's life on my trustworthiness? Tell you what… I'll give you some time to think about it, don't take too long though, the clock's ticking…" She said as her projection faded away and the recon probe decided to take off and head back inside the ventilation shaft from where it came from.

Anakin was now facing a tough choice; if he left Ahsoka to die here it would likely haunt him for the rest of his days. On the other hand if he didn't at least try to save the clones and complete the mission it would be a great moral and tactical defeat for the Republic in addition to him personally having the deaths of all the clones that had participated on the mission and whom he had personally fought with through the war weighing on his shoulders for who knows how long afterwards.

Minutes went by as he attempted to calm his mind by reciting the Jedi code in his head repeatedly like a mantra, but no matter how much his logical side told him to go and save the clones and finish the mission, his emotions got the best of him and he opened up the cell door to retrieve Ahsoka and carry her unconscious body out of the cell after using his lightsaber to cut off the vest of explosives strapped on her.

'I'm sorry Rex, Lift, Muck, Binary, Rad… everyone… I've failed you…' Anakin thought with his head hung down in sorrow while walking out of the detention area and into the hallways, carrying the unconscious body of his Padawan in his hands.

Even as he walked through the hallways, he was too ashamed of his selfish actions that he couldn't even bring himself to answer the comm. unit that was ringing in his ear to tell them of his decision and saying a final goodbye.

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**On The Bridge of The Malevolence**

**ST-ED And Sev'rance Tann**

"The explosives at the engines have been defused, general. One of our disposal teams is moving into the munitions storage to defuse the charges there as well, after that the ship should be safe from any possible damage the Republic strike team could inflict to us." The battle droid engineer NCO reported to ST-ED through the holocomm. after his team had disposed of the explosives the enemy's strike team had managed to plant there.

"Excellent work, sergeant D19-010. With the Jedi out of the way and the clones soon to be annihilated I'd say this day has been a victory. Wouldn't you agree general Tann?"

"Indeed, too bad Dooku ordered us to not kill Skywalker after all of that careful planning…" Tann said referring to the conversation the two officers had with the Count about their progress, which had led to Dooku ordering them to spare the Jedi's life on the premise that Dooku's master required the young knight to be alive for their future plans.

They were still free to kill the clones though…

'_Sir, we have completely surrounded the clones and they seem to have run out of all their available munitions. What do you want us to do with them?'_ One of the security battle droids leading the droid forces' defense in the gun batteries asked ST-ED through the network almost as if he already knew the answer.

ST-ED who was listening in from a comm. unit nodded towards the tactical droid.

'_We have no desire or need for prisoners, execute all of them…'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

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**A Few Minutes Earlie**r

**In The Main Starboard Side Turbolaser Battery**

"Decker's down!" Lift yelled while he saw his friend fall down from a blaster bolt clean through his armored head as he loaded the last power cell he had into his Z-6's ammo compartment and opened fire on third wave of battle droids that was sent against their position by the Separatists.

"Rex, this is a hopeless battle! We're getting surrounded by the kriffing tinnies and if we don't get Skywalker here right this moment we'll all be dead!" Blazer yelled over the gunfire while switching to his DC-15s blaster pistol after burning through his carbine's last power cell.

"I'm trying to reach him but there's no answer! Either we're being jammed or he's dead!" Rex shouted back while rapidly firing what little he had left from his two DC-17 heavy blaster pistols.

"I'm leaning more towards jammed, it's not like him to just get himself killed and leave his men behind to be blasted by the clankers!" Lift said while checking his ammo counter to see the chaingun was almost out of ammo.

"Agreed, lets just hope he'll figure out what's going on and come help us ou—GAHH!" Blazer cried out in pain as his shoulder was hit by one of the stray blaster bolts that were flying all around their position.

"Blazer!" Rex yelled as he saw his wounded friend take cover behind the hastily erected barricade they had assembled out of the thick ammunition crates that had been inside the larger container that they were originally on when they left their previous target.

"I'm okay, they just grazed my shoulder…" Blazer answered back before wincing from the burning sensation that seemed to be spreading out from the area where the round had struck him.

"I'm out!" Lift yelled as he threw his weapon with all his might towards the droid group that was advancing on the clone's position, managing to down some of the droids with the sheer force behind the combined power of the throw and the weapon's weight.

"I'm out as well." Rex said as he fired the last remaining shots from his pistols before they clicked empty and he calmly dropped them to the ground.

"We're out of detonators as well… we have nothing left to fight with besides our knives… and I doubt those are gonna cut through the tinnies…" Blazer said between pained breaths as he fought back the pain of his wounds.

Lift was about to take out his knife and fight regardless, but a blaster being shoved in his back interrupted his attempt.

"Hands up!" A single security battle droid said to the Republic soldiers as a second group of battle droids supported by a pair of droidekas that had gotten behind them pointed their weapons towards the clones.

"Do what the clanker says boys, no need to get ourselves killed needlessly…" Rex ordered his two comrades as he raised his arms in surrender.

The two other clones grudgingly agreed and raised their hands into the air as well, after which the group was promptly disarmed having all of their firearms and even the explosives taken from them by force before they were escorted out of their position.

After travelling only a short distance away from their previous position the group was brought to a halt.

"Stop, we're at our destination." The security droid ordered as half a dozen battle droids assembled into a neat line behind the three clones and placed them against the wall side-by-side.

"Are you sure your circuits are not malfunctioning tinnie? Because this doesn't look the cellblock to me." Blazer mockingly said to the droids.

Nobody was laughing…

"By the orders of generals ST-ED and Sev'rance Tann of the Confederacy of Independent Systems armed forces you are to be executed for attempted sabotage of the heavy cruiser CNV Malevolence, active immediately." The security droid informed the three clones who were shocked into silence.

"Firing squad! The security droid shouted almost comically with its squeaky voice. "Ready." The droids raised their weapons. "Aim." They took aim at the three helpless clones that stood against the wall.

'This is it then… never thought it would end like this, but I'm glad to have done my duty, like a good soldier.' Rex thought as the droids were about to fire, he closed his eyes in anticipation, waiting for the hit that would end him.

But it never came, he opened his eyes and saw Lift running for the droid that was holding the explosive charges in its hands much to the confusion of the other battle droids who weren't able to respond fast enough.

The heavy weapons expert ripped the satchel from the battle droid's hands and pulled the detonator trigger out of it as fast as he could and immediately pressed down on the bright red button on top.

The effect of his action was instant.

Even without the engines being destroyed, the explosion in the munitions hub still shook the ship to its very core, causing the floor under everyone's feet to become very unstable as both clones and droids fell off their feet.

The clones were able to get up first and immediately reached for the droids' weapons that were lying on the ground before blasting the nearest battle droids out of their way and making a run for it as fast as they could.

"Blast those clones, don't let any of them get away!" The security droid yelled to the other droids as they got up and opened fire on the fleeing clones, barely hitting any of them.

"What kind of shooting was that!? You idiots couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

"Ah well, it's our programming." One of the droids pointed out.

"I'll bring it up with the general to upgrade your targeting software." The security droid said with a facepalm.

'_I've already heard everything D19-010…'_ ST-ED pointed out through the network. _'I already planned to do exactly that after the battle is over.'_

'_What do you want us to do about those clones?'_

'_Let them go, we've already set up a surprise for them.'_

'_A surprise, sir?'_

'_You'll see…'_

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**Back at the bridge**

'_Send in the firefighters to take care of that fire at the munitions hub.'_ The tactical droid at the bridge ordered frantically as the fire began to spread from the explosion site to other parts of the ship._ 'Droideka fireteam nr.13 prepare to hunt down the remaining clones. They are carrying stolen weapons, be prepared in case they return fire.'_ ST-ED sent a general order throughout the network, which was rapidly complied as a trio of droidekas replied.

'_Yes, sir.'_

Turning away from the video feed on the console screen, ST-ED noticed that his organic counterpart was heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"After those clones."

"My droids are already on it, they can handle it."

"I just want to make sure they don't get off this ship, they are too dangerous to be left alive."

"What do you mean?"

"You've seen the footage…" Sev'rance turned to look towards the tactical droid who kept staring at her. "With only twelve men they already managed to destroy the ammo supply of this ship, if it hadn't been for the fact that they and Skywalker decided to split up so he could rescue his Padawan, this ship would have likely been completely crippled or even destroyed. I'm simply not taking any chances on them escaping and doing the same thing to other Separatist forces." She finished as ST-ED kept staring at her silently.

"I understand your reasoning… in that case, good hunting." ST-ED said, receiving a nod from the Chiss as she left through the doorway.

'_Monitor general Tann's progress at all times and make sure she's adequately supported.'_ ST-ED sent a general order through the network again, receiving a positive response from all of the security forces.

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**In The Hangar Bay**

'What the heck was that? Did they actually do it?' Anakin thought after he got off the floor, clearing his thoughts enough to answer the comm. unit that was still beeping as it did previously.

"General Skywalker! Finally you answered. I've been trying to reach you for the last fifteen minutes! What happened?" Rex's gruff voice sounded through his earpiece.

"Rex? Good to hear from you, I thought you might not have made it!" Anakin replied back with relief after hearing his trusty clone sidekick's voice again. "I found Ahsoka and…" He hesitated. "I… think we were being jammed by the Seps and for some reason that explosion finally got rid of the interference." He quickly came up with a convenient lie for why he didn't answer.

"Roger that, sir." Rex acknowledged his answer without the slightest hint of suspicion. "We're headed towards the hangar bay through the maintenance tunnels but the droids are hot on our tail and we could really use your help."

"I'm already at the hangar bay with Ahsoka." Anakin said. "She's unconscious so I'll drop her off at the craft and head your way."

"Copy that, sir. Please hurry though, we won't be able to outrun them forever." Rex said as he cut the call short.

The chosen one shook his head again before carrying his Padawan inside the freighter and lowering her down onto the co-pilot seat, causing R2 to beep frantically as it asked a question in binary, a language used almost exclusively by droids.

"She's fine Artoo, just unconscious." Anakin said as he turned back towards the cargo bay door. "Get the ship ready for takeoff, I'll go help Rex and the others after which we'll be getting out of here as quickly as possible."

The astromech droid beeped in acknowledgment and got to work as its master walked down the cargo door.

'I'm coming Rex, just hold on.'

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Maintenance Tunnels Under The IPC**

"On our right!" Lift yelled to his squad mates as a patrol of B1 battle droids came at them from around a corner and opened fire on the clone trio, whom responded with deadly accuracy as they quickly ducked behind cover and proceeded to dispatch the threat.

After only ten seconds, the patrol of six battle droids laid down on the ground as nothing more than smoking husks, with burn marks decorating their chests and heads.

"We're getting sloppy, we should have been able to dispatch of those droids a lot faster." Blazer muttered pessimistively, the burning sensation in his shoulder had died down but the burnt area itself still pulsated with almost excruciating pain with each shot he made and it had began to distrupt his ability to aim with both hands.

"We can't worry about that now, the tinnies are still after us and we've gotta keep moving if we are to make it off this ship alive." Lift said as he got up and began jogging down the dark and cramped hallway again.

"He's right you know. Come on, get up." Rex said with encouragement as he helped his teammate up from the ground and they began to run towards safety again."

After a while of jogging across the hallways they'd still come across nothing but empty areas completely devoid of any life, the only sound coming from the machinery that pumped breathable atmosphere across the ship from the life support systems.

"It's way too quiet…" Lift said quietly through the comm. as he provided the role of the group's pointman.

"I don't like this, stay alert." Rex replied with an equally quiet tone as he kept frantically scanning the environment.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

DDD-521 and his two fellow destroyer droids lurked in the shadows as they heard the clone trio approach their position, their clamps of their footsteps blaring out with each step they made and bouncing around the maintenance tunnel until it reached their audioreceptors.

'_Deploy and get ready to fire.' _Their commanding officer ST-ED ordered them as they unfolded from their rolling position and spread out their three legs underneath themselves, twin blaster appendages to their sides and raised their bubble shields around their bodies for protection as they waited for their targets to come into the view of their infrared photoreceptors.

As they waited, the footsteps became more audible, indicating that the clones would be coming just around the corner where they would be easy targets on the wide-open hallway.

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**Behind The Clones**

Sev'rance leaped over the remains of yet another patrol of droids that the Republic trio had taken out as she stayed in hot pursuit after them; they were likely headed towards their escape craft at the shuttle bay where their Jedi commander had already dropped off his Padawan and was headed back towards them according to the surveillance AI's reports.

As she rounded the last corner she could see the clones already heading into the hallway where the droidekas were set up.

'Any moment now…' She thought before seeing the lead clone get blasted off his feet by a series of heavy blaster bolts that punched straight through the armor plate protecting his chest and killed him before he even hit the ground.

"Rollies!" She could hear the clone behind the first one shout as he ran back around the corner, his partner following right beside him.

She grinned with a sinister smile as she approached them from the behind, activating her blood red lightsaber as she did so, alerting the two remaining clones to her presence and causing them to open fire on her.

She effortlessly deflected the blaster bolts from the stolen weapons and used her force powers to boost her speed as she leapt towards the clone on the right who was only using his other hand to fire because his other shoulder had been burnt so badly he couldn't use the rest of the arm properly.

The clone panicked, but kept firing his weapon until the dark acolyte's blade decapitated him and sent his head flying in a wide arc, hitting against one of the droidekas that had now appeared from around the corner and begun firing on the remaining clone.

The final clone didn't really know what to do and opted to attempt jumping over the three destroyer droids, somehow succeeding but he didn't get much further as Sev'rance sent a small amount of force lightning towards him, causing him to yell out in agony and fall over against the hard ground before he could get around the corner and into safety.

After the droidekas moved out of the way, she slowly walked over to the clone who despite his pain attempted to crawl towards his blaster, but was stopped as the Chiss simply kicked it out of his grasp before placing her foot on the Republic trooper's back, pressing hard against his spine to the point where it simply snapped like a twig and the clone yelled out once more in excruciating pain before he was flipped over to his back.

"Just finish me already Seppie scumbag…" The clone said in between heavy breaths of pain, having been paralyzed completely from neck downwards. "You'll get no information out of m… GAAAAA—Aah…" He cried out in pain again as he was shocked with even more force lightning.

"Silence! You've caused us enough trouble as it is… I'm going to savor every single moment as I kill you… slowly and very, VERY painfully." Sev'rance said with distain, using the force to remove the clone trooper's helmet before spitting in his eye.

The clone seemed to realize there was no use in any more insults or pleas for mercy and he simply closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

First, off went his right leg as it was slowly sawed off by the lightsaber's searing hot blade that cut through flesh like a hot knife through butter. The clone hissed but couldn't keep his mouth shut for long and began yelling in absolute agony as his leg was slowly separated from his body and it finally came off after what felt like an eternity to him.

This kept going on one at a time until finally all of his limbs were lying on the floor after being separated by the blade of pure energy. Each time one of his appendages was cut off he screamed, until finally his vocal cords gave up on him and all he could produce were hoarse coughs and by that point he was already by all accounts almost passed out from shock.

"Time to finally finish you off, fool. You will not be missed." Sev'rance said as she raised her blade into the air to slice the clone trooper's head clean off.

The Republic soldier on the ground didn't reply… he simply lacked the ability and willpower to do so anymore.

As her blade soared through the air, it was almost about to hit the clone's throat before being intercepted by another one, this one being colored blue.

"Tann…" Anakin snarled at her with malice, as he pushed his blade upwards while both his and Tann's own were locked together.

"Skywalker…" She responed with just as much venom towards her Jedi counterpart before she broke the deadlock and dashed towards the Jedi knight, her own lightsaber raised for an overhead strike that was aimed to decapitate her foe.

Anakin easily dodged the attack by sidestepping it before returning the favor with his own sideward slash aimed at the dark acolyte's chest area.

She blocked it and raised her other hand to force push her opponent against the hallway's wall in an attempt to possibly break a few of his bones, the Jedi knight dodged it by jumping out of the way, idly twirling his blade as he waited for his opponent to make the next move.

Which came in the form of a powerful force push that swept across the hallway and caused the Jedi Knight to fly across the air and onto his back.

Both to his luck and misfortune, Anakin had landed right next to Rex who had by now fallen unconscious from shock and exhaustion, the unfortunate fact was that the droidekas were also there and began firing at him. At the same time he was blocking the heavy blaster bolts with his blade, he used his free hand to pick up Rex with the force and begin carrying his limp body under his arm.

Sev'rance saw what he was attempting to do and used the force to amplify her jump and leaped back towards Anakin who was already retreating back around the corner from the line of fire of the destroyer droids.

"This could have been so much easier if you would have just left! I would have killed him and been done with it, but noo-o! You just had to come and ruin everything!" Tann angrily shouted at her opponent as she rapidly executed a series of slashes and stabs towards the Jedi who blocked each and every one of them with his blue blade before going on the offensive again.

"I don't leave my friends behind!"

"Friends?! HA! These clones are nothing but mere pawns that do your bidding!" Sev'rance said with a short but unsettling laugh as she swiped her blade low in an attempt to cut off Skywalker's legs.

"The clones are more than just cannon fodder! They are living beings that have hopes and dreams just like everyone else!" Anakin shouted back as he kept attempting to find a gap in his opponent's defenses.

"Do you even listen to what you are saying? Hopes and dreams? The clones were created with a single purpose in mind just like battle droids! To fight and serve like slaves to their respective causes and that's the only thing they are good for!" Sev'rance said as she saw the trio of droidekas walk around from behind the corner with their weapons at the ready and leaped upwards to avoid being shot up as they opened fire.

Her Jedi opponent turned around to save himself at the last moment but he wasn't fast enough to save his cargo as the clone was hit in his exposed head by a stray blaster bolt and had his brain cooked by the searing heat, killing him.

"REX!" Anakin shouted in disbelief as he saw the smoking hole in his clone friend's head.

Soon more droid reinforcements arrived to the scene in the form of super battle droids, who came in from the hallway behind the droidekas and without hesitation opened fire on their Jedi adversary.

'Rex… Goodbye, old friend…' Anakin thought with sorrow while deflecting the increasing amount of fire as he dropped his friend's body. Using the force to amplify his speed he sprinted into the dark hallway and out of the range of the droid weapons.

"Seize fire! He won't be a threat to us anymore." Tann ordered the assembled group of battle droids and droidekas who quickly complied, stopped firing and lowered their weapons.

Before she could issue any further orders she was interrupted by her comm. unit's beeping, answering it she heard the familiar voice of ST-ED at the other end.

"General Tann, what is the situation, have you and your forces been able to eliminate the remaining clones?" The tactical droid asked.

"Yes, we just managed to get the last of them after Skywalker attempted to rescue him." Sev'rance gave her report. "The Jedi got away and I suspect he's heading towards the hangar bay."

"As it should be, excellent work out there I'm sure the Count will be pleased."

"Not completely I'm afraid… the clones were still able to destroy our ammunition supply and cause significant damage to the superstructure after the various munitions inside the hub detonated." Tann said as she checked the incoming data from her wristpad.

"But we still saved the ship from any further destruction, it shouldn't take too long to repair any damage the Republic caused with this attack. I'd consider that a minor tactical victory in the very least." ST-ED re-assured her with a confident tone.

"Agreed, I'm heading back towards the bridge now, be prepared when I get there."

"Affirmative."

And so, the Republic's attempted sabotage mission against the Separatist heavy cruiser Malevolence had ended in failure, only one of the objectives was achieved even that was with heavy casualties as none of the twelve clone troopers assigned to the mission returned and were marked as killed-in-action amongst the thousands of their brethren. The strike team's Jedi commanders were barely able to get out of the system alive after being pursued by the Confederate Navy's fighter patrols all around the system prior to their jump back to Republic controlled space.

On the Confederate side of things, the battle was a celebrated tactical victory and a smack on their enemy's face after it was found out that a dark acolyte and a tactical droid had outsmarted the Republic's elite strike team and would have likely been able to kill even the Jedi if they hadn't been given explicit orders not to do so. Both Sev'rance and ST-ED were given a bit of R&amp;R time for the duration of the Malevolence's repairs, which would end up being just over a single galactic standard week.

After the repairs would be done they would be called back to action to command a mission of utmost importance to the CIS war effort…

…The Battle of Rishi moon.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: Phew… that was… I don't know what it was, but it was still awesome.**

**Anyways, tell me your thoughts about the chapter and what do you think of the path the plot's currently headed to in the reviews.**

**For now, MarxistFIN is signing off.**


	7. Chapter 7

**More Than Just A Clanker**

**A/N: If it hasn't become clear to some by this point, knowledge of the expanded universe is required to understand some parts of the story (Units not featured in the cartoon or movies, EU characters etc.)**

**So as friendly advice, keep the Star Wars wiki at hand if you have to check what some droid unit looks like that you previously didn't know about (I'm fairly certain MAFs were the unknown predecessors of the HMP Predator droid gunships to many who haven't played Battlefront before.)**

**Also, new cover art… That's ST-ED. I made the pic myself.**

Chapter 7 – One Small Step For a Droid…

**8 Days Since "The Malevolence Incident"**

**Surface of Raxus Prime**

**Outside Droid Production Facility Nr. 03**

**Testing Range**

"_Target neutralized."_ The light green prototype battle droid reported through the network after confirming its kill, which was a lonely clone trooper that was chosen to be target practice from amongst other prisoners of war that had attempted escape from CIS prison facilities across the galaxy, failed at it and were punished severely in a variety of ways.

The droid that had killed the Republic grunt had been one of the new X-SW1 or Experimental Specialized Warfare battle droids, a prototype model of one of ST-ED's own designs that the tactical droid had come up with during his spare time onboard the Illusionist.

The battle droids had completed their test runs near perfectly, even against armed clone prisoners who had all their standard gear with them. Most of them had opted to used their camouflage systems to blend into their environment and use the built-in vibroblades located inside their wrists to slice the throat open or snap their target's neck after sneaking up behind them and going in for the kill.

One incident did happen where the prototype's camouflage unit malfunctioned and it had to engage the targeted clone trooper head on with its main weapon, the heavy rotary blaster arm. It suffered minor damage to its forward plating and ended up with a fried photoreceptor as a result of the fight. The test was considered a partial success though after taking into account the droid still managed to locate the clone using only its highly sensitive audioreceptors and blasting him right across the chest with its cannon's tri-shot function.

'_Excellent work, D89-X3D that clone never saw you coming." _ST-ED congratulated the experimental droid squad leader. _"We'll be leaving for our next mission soon, you and your squad are to be ready and equipped for combat when we head out.'_

"_Yes, sir."_ The prototype acknowledged as it marched off towards the temporary storage facility that had been constructed for each of the prototype droid models that ST-ED had designed during his time in service, most designs were still only early prototypes that hadn't been field tested yet not to mention put into full production.

All of his designs for mainline battle droids so far had been rejected by the corporate heads of the Separatist council as "too expensive" even if it could be clearly shown by statistics they were more cost effective than the mainline B1 and B2 battle droids if put into full-scale production. After the whole thing escalated into an "shitstorm", to put it into organic terms, ST-ED had simply given up and opted to produce all the designs he had come up with using his personal funds after getting the permission to use Raxus Prime's extensive droid foundries from the local Separatist government officials.

X-SW1s were currently the only prototypes ready for field-testing, their first mission being on the single moon of planet Rishi, which was to be targeted for a stealth assault to test out another new Separatist droid design by Baktoid Combat Automata, the BX-series droid commandos. The main objective being to take out the clones manning the listening outpost and transmit the all-clear signal to nearby Republic fleets so the Confederate navy would have a clear path straight to Kamino where the clone army was being produced. Their goal being, to cause as much damage to the clone production facilities as they possibly could before the Republic's reinforcements arrived into the system, effectively crippling their enemy's ability to reinforce themselves with fresh troops.

In the beginning when he first heard about the commando droids, he didn't have high hopes about the success of the BX-series considering they were designed and produced by the same people who made the highly defective B1s, after hearing of the commando droids' reputation during their test runs on the planet of Ryloth though, ST-ED was intrigued to see them in action personally.

If for no other reason than to see if the commando droids would do better or worse compared to the ones he designed.

'_Send in the dropships to pick up the replacements from the foundry.'_ He sent a command to the Malevolence's traffic operator through the network.

'_Roger, roger. Dropships on the way, estimated time of arrival three-point-oh-nine minutes.'_ The pilot droid in charge of directing the air traffic in and out of the ship replied as two of the C-9979 landing crafts housed inside the cruiser left the hangar bay after the ray shield protecting the entrance was lowered.

Walking out of the front gates of the testing range, on his right ST-ED could see the first batch of replacements for the Malevolence's destroyed security forces marching straight off the assembly line and out of the foundry's front door, all in a tight square formation.

As the dropships soon landed onto the courtyard and began loading up their passengers, ST-ED was still thinking about the new mainline battle droid designs he had cooked up and wishing he had the necessary materials to begin building them immediately.

At least he had been able to keep his promise and upgrade the targeting computers and software of the B1s that were recycled and produced inside the foundry so they would according to his calculations be able to hit their targets just as well as the standard clone trooper the Republic fielded.

That endeavor too had to be funded by the money taken from one of his many private bank accounts in the IBC, something he had been doing a lot lately.

After walking past the sight of the new battle droids and reaching his personal shuttle, he started up the engines and lifted off, heading towards the 21st fleet's new flagship as it waited in orbit alongside the landing craft.

Landing into the hangar bay he got a call from the pilot droid acting as the ship's main comm. operator.

'_Sir, you have an incoming call from Count Dooku on the holocomm. Marked as priority one.'_

'_Tell him I'm on my way.' _ST-ED replied, not really knowing what the call could be about, he had already been briefed on his next mission prior to this so there was no real reason for the Confederate head of state to call him otherwise.

'_Roger, roger.'_

After exiting the shuttle, the tactical droid headed straight to the bridge where he was already being waited by OOM-29 who had also been called for the meeting.

"General, glad to see you've arrived. Do you have any idea what this is all about?"

"I'm just as clueless as you are, 29." ST-ED admitted, calling his second-in-command by his "nickname", a concept that he had learned from Sev'rance who had explained that use of nicknames was common amongst organics as a way of differentiating people from each other.

"Well I don't think we should keep Lord Dooku waiting for too long."

"Agreed, establish connection." ST-ED ordered as the holographic presentation of the Sith Lord sprung up from the platform.

"General ST-ED, Commander OOM-29. I have important information to give to you concerning your next mission in the Rishi system that I think you might want to hear."

"We are listening." ST-ED said, clasping his hands behind his back.

"A recent decision has been made amongst the council to include General Grievous' fleet in the operation, he will be securing the rest of the system after you've cleared the listening station on Rishi's moon of any Republic presence and head towards Kamino." Dooku informed the two droids in a calm and collected tone, which caused the two droids to become silent and still.

"I know you don't personally like having Grievous on board but this matter is not up for debate. The council wants to make sure their investment is not going completely to waste so I'll have to throw them a bone every once in a while. For now, you'll just have to deal with their antics. Good luck and may the force serve you well." Dooku said in a sympathetic tone before cutting the transmission.

The two droid officers were left in an eerie quiet that was only interrupted by the occasional beep of the console as they looked at each other. The silence was finally broken when OOM-29 decided to voice his thoughts.

"Well… this is certainly going to be interesting if nothing else."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back on Mustafar**

"**Paradise Island" Detention Facility**

After studying the layout of the prison from one of the datapads that Funn had been able to snatch from a passing Trandoshan mercenary working as a night guard in their cellblock, Kess, Funn, Rig and several of their fellow clones had after a long period of planning and debating devised an escape plan.

During the mornings when they'd be heading to the mines again, one of them would fake injury and when the escorting guards will go to check on him, the others would swarm the droids and steal their weapons and possibly even spark a riot amongst the other prisoners as a result.

In case they would be unable to take on the droids with their bare hands, they had still been able to craft several makeshift weapons like shivs from the minerals and rock they had mined from the planet's soil that were sharpened to the point they would easily puncture through the weak armor plating of the battle droids and cut off their frail necks.

Which was exactly what they were doing right now, and since they were at the back of the group, no one noticed the fact that several clones and droids from the back of the group were missing.

At least not visually, but the droids didn't need visual contact to know if one of their own was down since the signal of a de-activated droid would automatically disappear from the network to notify the rest that he had been either destroyed or shut down.

And since the half a dozen or so droids had been assigned to guard the prisoner column, they had no reason to be de-activated and the T-series tactical droid OP-92 who acted as the detention center's head warden came to the conclusion that they had been taken out of commission by prisoners attempting escape and sounded the alarm.

"That doesn't sound good…" Funn said as he looked back towards the prison entrance where the retractable bridge was lowering back down to allow the escapee hunters across it.

"It's the escape alarm, they know about what we've done, let's move." Rig ordered, receiving nods from everyone else in the group as they ran across the volcanic surface, putting on their protective headgear as they did, including a filter-equipped facemask that protected them from the noxious fumes that were constantly spewing from the rivers of lava.

After they crossed the first line of defense, which was the lava field surrounding the area around the facility, they came across a large river of molten rock that had several constantly moving transport platforms that were carrying the minerals mined by the prisoners to be refined and produced into other products like weapons for the Droid Army.

The hunters were hot on their tail so group would have to attempt jumping onboard the platforms in hopes that one of them would take them somewhere.

Most of the clones made it but one of the inexperienced rookies slipped after landing onto the platform's edge and fell backwards, screaming as his body was rapidly consumed by the burning hot lava.

The others were silent as they watched their comrade's smoking body disappear amongst the waves of molten rock before turning their gaze back forward and towards the refinery in the distance.

"There it is; that's our target!" Rig yelled to the others while the platforms kept approaching the facility.

"How exactly are we going to get out through there?!" Kess shouted back questioningly.

"There's bound to be some sort of transport craft in there! We'll figure it out once we're inside!"

With those words, everyone fell silent as the platforms slowed down and entered inside the facility through the massive open double doors.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**21****st**** Fleet of The Confederate Navy &amp; CNV Malevolence**

**In Hyperspace En Route To Rishi System**

While they waited for the fleet to arrive into the Rishi system, Sev'rance and ST-ED continued the droid's lightsaber training in the Malevolence's hangar bay with ST-ED wielding the blade he had received from Erus Kieol after the battle of Raxus Prime, since he found that he liked a melee weapon that had more power behind it rather than something that was fast and well… light.

"You must use more unpredictable patterns, I can easily counter your current moveset since you keep repeating it over and over again." Sev'rance instructed as she kept blocking the inexperienced tactical droid's overhead slashes and stabs that were not really anything more than what any regular blade user would use in their standard fighting patterns.

"Use unorthodox tactics, focus on distracting your foe!" She shouted while blocking a particularly powerful sideward slash from the green blade of her sparring partner's lightsaber.

The tactical droid took her advice to heart and while attacking with the lightsaber in his hand; he began producing a high pitch whining noise from his vocabulator, which was intended to distract his foes by damaging their eardrums.

The tactic worked somewhat as Sev'rance jumped back in pain and surprise, using her other hand to balance as she fell on her knees on the ground.

"Good… that is exactly what I meant." She said with a grin before going on the offensive by using a force amplified leap to cover the distance between herself and her sparring partner, the droid though had studied her previous attack patterns so he had a somewhat decent idea of how she fought.

And he used the acquired knowledge to block each and every one of her strikes with his blade with a pinpoint accuracy, courtesy to the advanced droid brain located inside his head, which gave him a reaction time that way surpassed that of any organic.

After both of the combatants' blades were locked in a stalemate, ST-ED played his trump card and hit the Sith lady's blade with his cortosis covered fist, causing the red beam emanating it to short out before he produced a powerful kick towards her mid-section that sent her flying across the air.

Before she could get up, the tactical droid had used the boosters in his lower body to leap right next to her, placing the saber right above her throat.

"Do you yield, general Tann?" He asked with a neutral tone.

"Sure, could you help me up? I think I broke something." She said, wincing as she offered her hand to the droid who pulled her up from the metal floor.

"You've learned quite a lot since our first sparring match. I'd say you would be at least on the same level as a Jedi Padawan. And you've reached all of it within just a week!" Tann said in amazement before turning off her saber's red blade and securing it in its sheath.

"Us droids tend to learn a lot faster than organics, comes with all the other perks like practically infinite lifespan due to having data backups of ourselves stored inside the Droid Network." ST-ED explained as he shut off his lightsaber's blade and magnetically secured the hilt on his waist.

"Generals, we'll be arriving into the Rishi system in three-point-forty-five minutes, I suggest you get ready for the mission." OOM-29's voice sounded off from the hangar bay's intercom.

"Well, looks like a rematch will have to wait for another time. I'll see you on the ground, good luck." Tann said as she went to board one of the Droch-class boarding ships alongside a squad of commando droids that would be used to make the landing under the cover of a meteor shower that regularly occurred on the tropical planet's moon.

'_What is the status with Grievous' forces?'_ ST-ED posed a question as he himself climbed into the other boarding ship alongside a dozen of the X-SW1 battle droids.

'_They're ready to begin their attack and are waiting for our signal at the edges of the system as planned.'_ The comm. operator at the bridge answered his query.

'_Good, in that case everything is still going according to schedule.'_

'_We have a schedule?'_ D89-X3D asked.

'_Affirmative, we are to clear all Republic forces from the moon in no less than ten minutes, after that we will give Grievous the signal to begin his attack. We will then jump out of the Rishi system and head towards Kamino.'_

'_Roger, roger. General.'_

Soon there was a slight lurch as the ships came out of lightspeed and into the protecting shadow of the planet Risha inside the Rishi system.

'_All right, everyone knows what our objectives are. Pilots, take us to our target.' _ST-ED ordered the OOM-series pilot droids operating the boarding crafts' controls.

'_Roger, roger.'_ Came the response as each of the crafts lifted off from the hangar bay deck and headed out into the vacuum of space.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Rishi's Moon**

**Rishi Station**

"You're listening to the Grand Army of the Republic broadcast, the voice of the Outer Rim. This next one goes out to the mud-jumpers of the 224th slugging it out on Mimban. Keep your heads down and your seals tight, boys." Announced the Bettie-Bot VJ host of the radio broadcast as music continued to blare out in the background of the commotion going inside the moon's single listening station's control room.

The station's personnel consisted mainly of rookie clones that had yet to even experience actual combat and had to get the other half of their training on the battlefield with their more experienced brethren acting as trainers.

"This is boring, we've been out here for weeks and we haven't seen any sign of seppie activity." CT-782 "Hevy" said, throwing his hands up in the air out of sheer boredom.

"Instead of complaining about your assignment maybe you should check the scanners to see what's out there." CT-21-0408 "Echo" replied back to his comrade's complaint.

"Oh sure…hmm, let's see… Nope still nothing. Just like the last hundred times I've checked!"

"Personally, I like the quiet. Gives me time to go through all the combat reports from other battles, it looks pretty grim at the moment to be honest."

"Echo, what is wrong with you? You're always content doing more paper work, we should be out there in the field blasting droids!"

"Leave him be, they kept him in the growth jar a bit too long." CT-4040 "Cutup" joked as both of the clones laughed on their un-amused partner's antics.

"Attention! Sergeant on deck!" CT-00-2010 Droidbait shouted from the upper end of the room's staircase as the sergeant CT-19-7409 "O'Niner" walked in through the main entrance and Cutup quickly turned off the radio.

"At ease. Even though you're all new here, I shouldn't have to remind you maggots that this quadrant is key to the Outer Rim." The sergeant began his speech to the rookies. "This station is the only thing that stands between the planet each of us was born on, Kamino and a Separatist fleet attacking it."

"Should this station fall, there is nothing stopping a surprise attack by the tinnies on Kamino, so I expect each of you to be on your guard at all times. Am I clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good, now get back to work, there's going to be an inspection team and a changing of guard within the hour so I want everything to be in tip-top condition, dismissed." O'Niner said as he left the room to go and check on the sentry posted outside.

After the sergeant had left, the radio was turned back on and the rookie clones resumed their partying before again being interrupted, this time by the alarm, which began blaring to indicate of an imminent danger to the station's integrity.

"Incoming meteor shower, raise the shields!" Echo yelled as he checked the sensors, which indicated several large objects heading towards the moon's surface at high speeds.

"You wanted excitement, here it is."

"Yeah, a meteor shower. Really damn scary…" Hevy said with disappointment as he looked over the shoulders of both Cutup and Echo to see the visual feed from the cameras stationed on the outside.

They were all unaware of course that the simple meteor shower was not exactly all what it seemed, for it held within it something far silent and deadly than burning hot space rocks.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Craft Nr.4**

**4km From The Moon's Surface**

The heat was visibly rising up at the improvised landing craft's nose as it began turning to a burning red color, indicating that it had began its descent through the moon's thin atmosphere.

Inside the craft, the commando droid squad stood still as the craft shook violently during its rough landing amongst the meteors that were heading the same way they were.

'_Three kilometers to the surface…'_ The pilot droid informed as he steered the craft slightly to the right to avoid collision with one of the larger space rocks.

'_Check your weapons, I don't want any malfunctions happening when we are on the field.'_ The commando droid captain B1T-D3D ordered his team as each of them did final checks on all of their gear.

'_Two and a half…'_

'_My pistol is not syncing up with my targeting programs.'_ One of the commandos inside the pod said as he tapped his sidearm's side lightly.

'_Here, take mine. I'm probably not going to need it anyway.'_ Another one said, handing out his SE-14 blaster pistol to his comrade who nodded in response before grabbing it.

'_One and a half…'_

**At ST-ED's Craft**

'_One Kilometer…'_

'…_And that's why you must always attempt to keep the element of surprise, for it will be your greatest advantage when eventually coming in contact with the enemy.'_ ST-ED finished one of his lessons to his own team of droids.

_'Understood, sir. We won't fail you.'_

'_I'm 75,89 percent certain you won't.'_

'_500…400…300…200…100…'_ The pilot droid counted down as the craft shook violently before it finally gave a huge thumping sound as it touched down onto the moon's surface.

'_Let's move.'_ ST-ED said, taking out his personal customized E-5 carbine off its holster on his back and jumped out of the craft's bottom hatch that had just been opened.

After landing onto the cold, barren white surface he took a quick look around to see they hadn't been spotted before signaling for the rest of the XSWs to follow his lead.

A hundred and a half meters to his right he could see the commando droids exiting their craft as well, following their captain's lead as they engaged their infiltration protocols.

The tactical droid and his six companions quickly headed towards the base's bottom where there was a ventilation shaft they could enter through.

On the way they had to move quietly to avoid stirring the giant eel that was hunting for prey on the surface, its not like they would be edible since they were droids but damage to their systems had to still be avoided if at all possible.

'_The front door's sentry is down, moving into the base proper.'_ The commando droid captain reported in through the network.

'_Copy that, we're entering through the ventilation, make sure none of the clones inside the main control room manage to escape.'_ ST-ED responded as he removed the shaft's entrance's metal cover, before nodding to D89-X3D who crawled slowly into the cramped ventilation tunnel.

ST-ED himself was the last one to enter, as he had to re-close the entrance again before continuing on behind his troops.

'_We're stacked up at the front door, ready to breach.'_ B1T-D3D reported.

'_Do it.'_ ST-ED said, getting his response in the form of an explosion that shook the very foundations of the station.

Soon muffled blaster fire could be heard all the way in the ventilation shaft as the firefight between the clones and the droid intruders.

'_I hear footsteps, some of the clones are attempting to escape through the ventilation system.'_ D89-X3D informed the rest of his team.

'_We don't take prisoners, kill them all as soon as you have visual.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

'_All targets in the control room eliminated.' _B1T-D3D informed everyone through the network.

Just then D89-X3D kicked the ventilation cover off and crawled into the hallway where several lightly armed clones were standing shocked and dumbfounded.

They quickly got out of their stupor though as they raised their sidearms and began blasting at the advanced battle droid in an attempt to take him down and buy themselves enough time to get to a safe distance before the commandos shot them in the back.

The light blaster bolts unfortunately had no effect on the heavy plating of XSW-series battle droid squad leader and without further hesitation he raised his blaster arms towards the clones firing at him.

A long burst of blaster bolts from his rotary main weapon and a total of five dead clones later, the smug voice of D89-X3D responded back to his BX-series counterpart.

'_You missed a few…'_ He said as his comrades went to check all of the bodies for any surprises and to confirm the kill.

'_Disable the alarm and begin transmitting the 'all-clear' signal immediately, we don't want the Republic getting suspicious until we reach Kamino.'_ ST-ED said while he crawled out of the vent entrance, cutting off the banter between the rival droid strike teams before it could even begin.

'_Roger, roger.'_ The commando droid captain responded as his men began working on the consoles to get everything ready for the Confederacy's invasion of Kamino.

'_Signal transmitting, we are good to go.'_

'_Affirmative, relief forces will be arriving alongside Grievous' fleet to secure the station and the rest of the system, we'll be moving on to our next target in the meantime.' _ST-ED informed everyone as he stepped out of the ventilation shaft and into the control room.

'_Roger, roger.'_

Before they were able to exit the control room, a small beeping noise from the communications console alerted them as they were about to leave.

"Check it out and see what's going on." Sev'rance who had not taken part in the previous conversations due to being organic and thus not being able to access the all-binary Droid Network, ordered as one of the commando droids got to work on deciphering the incoming communication.

"It's a message from a Republic shuttle they say they are here to inspect the station and relieve the current garrison of troops." The droid operating the console said as it turned back to look towards the group.

"Perfect…" The Chiss thought out loud in frustration. "Just what we needed right now."

"Everyone get into defensive positions, we are going to ambush the incoming Republic force and take them out before they inform the rest of their friends about what's really going on." ST-ED ordered.

"Roger, roger." The other droids responded.

"Hey, I just had an idea…" Sev'rance said as if an imaginary lighbulb had just appeared above her head. "Check the clone ID tags, the commandos should be able to use their infiltration programming and slimmer frames to disguise themselves as enemy troops, with the uniforms of those clones that we just killed. After which we lure the Republic reinforcements into a trap."

"I like the way think, General Tann." ST-ED said, grinning internally with satisfaction as the scenario played out in his mind. "Captain B1T-D3D, get on it."

"Roger, roger. General."

"Here's how we do it…" Tann began laying out her plan.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A Few Moments Later**

"Rishi station, do you copy? This is the inspection team lead by Commander CT-2113." The clone officer nicknamed "Boxer" said into the communications unit calmly as he waited for a response from the other side.

"Everything's quiet, the troops on this station are usually slow but never this slow, something fishy is going on." Lieutenant CT-9350 "Three-fitty", his XO who was piloting the shuttle they used to fly alongside the troop carrier holding the station's relief forces pointed out.

Suddenly the comm. unit finally came to life, and the helmeted face of one of the clone personnel appeared on the screen.

"Sir, sergeant CT-19-7409 reporting in, sir!" The clone at the other end reported with an awkward salute.

'Finally…" Boxer thought with relief.

"At ease, sergeant. What's going on, what took you so long to answer?" The clone lieutenant asked with suspicion.

"We were… experiencing a comm. malfunction but our engineers just told me that they fixed it and we should be functioning normally." The disguised droid explained the back-story that ST-ED was constantly feeding to him through the network.

"A comm. malfunction? This is bad indeed, we can't afford to have things like that happening too often with the Seppies on the move."

"As I said, we have it under control…"

"We'll be coming in to inspect anyway, we're going to tour the facility from top to bottom to make sure there are no further problems with the station. It is too important to be lost to a possible attack by the clankers because of a mere malfunction." Boxer said, being oblivious to the irony of his statement as he was right at that moment speaking to a droid himself.

"Roger that, commander. We'll be ready when you arrive."

"See to it that you are, Commander Boxer out." Boxer said, as he got ready to end the call.

"Out."

After the conversation was done the two ships were ready to land onto the station's main landing platform and began to extend their gear in preparation for touchdown.

"All clear so far… strange, you'd think they would at least have a sentry waiting outside to greet visitors and sweep the area for intruders." The clone lieutenant commented as the shuttle finally touched down on to the surface.

"Something's very wrong here, stay alert." His CO said while putting his helmet on. "That goes for all of you." He added to the rest of the men who were exiting their transport.

As they jumped down onto the platform they looked back towards the station's main entrance, which was now open as a single clone in full gear walked out of it to greet the newcomers.

"Commander, Lieutenant. Welcome to Rishi Station, likely the most boring job assignment in the galaxy." The disguised commando droid said with an semi-authentic clone voice, fabricated from samples of intercepted and recorded Republic radio communications.

"Cut the attitude, sergeant. We're here to investigate the station's functionality not tourist reviewing." Boxer said with a no-nonsense tone, clearly annoyed by the fake NCO's sarcasm.

"Of course, sir. Right this way."

As the group walked along the platform and towards the station proper, the two officers noticed more off-putting things about the situation the obvious one being the sergeant's odd, jerky movement that reminded them of droids.

"Where are the rest of the guards, or the rest of the station's staff for that matter?" Boxer asked out of nowhere as they walked in through the doorway to see that no one was there to greet them.

"They umm… are on a break at the moment." The droid came up with a bullshit response in the hopes of fooling the officers long enough to escort them into the control room where the ambush was set up.

Boxer eyed the fake NCO critically for a moment, looking for any signs of dishonesty in his body language, only noting that the individual clone in question was standing completely still, like a statue…

…Or a droid.

"On a break… yeah right…" Three-Fitty commented snarkily.

"The… others are still at their stations though, they are at the control room its right at the top of the stairs."

"Let's not waste anymore time, just take us there and we'll take this up with the station's commanding officer." Boxer ordered hesitantly, his suspicions of the sergeant in front of him becoming clearer, but he was still not exactly able to definitively pinpoint what the main factor of his doubt was.

"Yes, sir."

As they reached the end of the stairs, the sergeant suddenly turned back towards the group and removed its helmet much to the shock of the clones.

"End of the line, Republic scum." The commando droid said as the doors closed right in front of Boxer and Three-Fitty, followed by the one behind the replacements.

"**NO!"** Boxer yelled as the image of the droid's face disappeared from his field of view.

"This was a trap, I kriffing knew it!" Three-Fitty yelled in anger as he began frantically looking around for an exit, for which there was none at the moment.

"Alright, calm down. This is not as bad as it looks." Boxer said as he pointed towards a ventilation shaft entrance located in the ceiling.

"That's way too high for any of us to reach…"

"Not if someone else boosts them." Boxer said as he crouched down and offered his hands as a ledge for his partner to climb from.

The lieutenant grinned under his helmet as he boosted himself up to the ventilation cover, which he quickly removed and threw to the floor, after which he climbed inside the shaft itself.

"Okay, next one." Boxer ordered as each of the twelve or so clone troopers used his help to get up into the shaft, the last one had to be pulled inside because there was no one left to give him a boost to his leap to safety.

As they crawled through the long and cramped shaft, Three-Fitty suddenly stopped, as he smelled the air.

"Gas! Quickly, seal your helmets!"

"That was a close one." Boxer said as they continued crawling forward in the dark ventilation tunnel.

"Yeah, weird though. It didn't smell like any poison gas almost like Tib-…" The lieutenant never finished his sentence as a detonator was thrown inside the ventilation shaft by one of the commando droids.

"Oh kri…" Three-Fitty uttered his last words as the detonator's timer rapidly ticked down before exploding and igniting the Tibanna gas that had been sprayed into the ventilation shafts, burning out both all breathable air and frying all the clone troopers inside it effectively ending any Republic retaliation to the Separatist operation.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back In The Control Room**

**CIS Strike Team**

As the flames poured out of the ventilation shaft followed by the muffled screams of burning clones, Sev'rance grinned with satisfaction.

"That sure got rid of those clones."

"No doubt about that." ST-ED added as he took out his pocket-sized holo-communicator to contact General Grievous.

"General Grievous. Operation Radio Silence has been a success; all Republic forces have been neutralized. You are clear to proceed with your attack." The tactical droid informed his Kaleesh counterpart who after coughing a few times responded.

"Good, I am looking forward to the slaughter that we will bring onto the Republic forces on Rishi after this." The cyborg said with a sinister glee as he rubbed his duranium-alloy hands together in anticipation.

"I'm sure you will, meanwhile General Tann and myself will be moving on to Kamino to carry out the second part of the plan." ST-ED responded neutrally as he and Tann walked out of the facility's front door with both the BX and XSW-series droids in tow.

"Yes, good luck on Kamino. Kill some Jedis for me when you get there." Grievous responded harshly, bitter that he wasn't allowed to take part in a critical operation such as Kamino.

He felt almost betrayed that he had been excluded, but in light of the tactical droid's previous achievements such as besting his nemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Republic's posterboy Anakin Skywalker, twice in addition to saving the Malevolence, he figured ST-ED was trustworthy enough to carry the offensive out successfully.

"Trust me, we will." ST-ED said as he ended the call, turning to look towards the landing crafts that were touching down on the moon's surface.

"Looks like we're heading for Kamino now, how successful do you figure we will be?" Tann asked as she walked up the ramp of the C-9979 that had just touched down onto the station's landing pad.

"I calculate a 72.651 percent chance of success should we be able to keep our element of surprise all the way to the Kamino System. Otherwise I am not certain, more data is required."

"Well I certainly like those odds…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Red Circle Fleet**

**Venator-Class Star Destroyer "Negotiator"**

**Bridge**

"It's been over a week since we've heard anything new from General Grievous or that new tactical droid, I wonder what they've been planning…" Obi-Wan mused as he observed the galaxy map.

"Don't even remind me of that, the entire operation was a disaster. I lost twelve good soldiers during that whole thing without achieving much of anything…" Anakin responded to his mentor grimly, lowering his head as the memory of his clone sidekick Rex flashed in his mind briefly, reminding him of the agony the clone captain had faced in the hands of the Sith as his limbs were cut off, one by one. Remembering every detail all the way until his eventual death in the midst of battle.

"Master, you have to learn to let go… you can't dwell on his death forever, Rex wouldn't have wanted that…" His Padawan Ahsoka said, even though she couldn't help but share her master's grief at the loss of the clone veteran, a man who had been as much of an influence in her growth as an individual as Anakin and the other Jedi had.

"Yes, I suppose you're right… Rex was always a man with a sense of duty, someone who took pride in what he did, he was ready to do whatever it took to finish the mission, even at the price of his own life…"

"Sir, we've got an incoming priority one message!"

"From where?" Kenobi queried, fearing the worst already.

"Kamino, the Separatists have just mounted an full scale invasion and engaged the defensive fleet!"

The silence that followed was so thick that it could almost be felt like a solid object as every single member of the bridge crew turned to look towards the lonely comm. operator who began squirming uncomfortably under the stares.

"Well, I quess we know where they are now…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**A/N: And that wraps up this chapter.**

**Final thing I'd like to cover is one particularly interesting review that was left into the TCW version's review section by a fellow called Neo-Byzantium:**

"_**Great story so far, you're showing things from the point of view of the Confederacy and of the battle droids who you're portraying as being formidable foes for the Republic and not the glorified punching bags that they all too often get portrayed as in canon PLUS you're making the Separatists out to be a force with shades of grey to them instead of the cardboard cutout bad guys that the canon sources frequently make them out to be.**__****_

_**As for ST-ED, he kicks a lot of ass! He's handed the CIS several victories that in canon were defeats for them plus he seems to be far more patient and level headed then Grievous who I agree with ST-ED about him being a bigoted jerk. I also like how he and Sev'rance made up after their little spat on Krant, they make a pretty good team and were able to defeat Anakin and Ahsoka's efforts to destroy the Malevolence PLUS wipe out their entire team of clone troopers including Rex /that sucked but it's a pro-CIS fanfic so it's to be expected/. I'm also impressed that he managed to kill Plo Koon /who I also like but he died honourably at least/, one of the top Jedi in the Jedi Order, ST-ED's making quite the name for himself, I expect many more great things from him.**__****_

_**If he changes history enough, the Confederacy could end up winning the Clone Wars and the general populous of the CIS could end up improving their opinions on droids AND regard ST-ED as a great hero if they don't already.**__****_

_**Quick question though, how does ST-ED regard the CIS's other famous figures like Ventress, Nute Gunray, Poggle the Lesser and others?**__****_

_**I look forward to the next chapter, keep up the good work."**_

**The first part of his review IMO points out exactly what is wrong with the cartoons' AND the prequel movies' depiction of the war's participants considering all the overall factors in it. Neither the Republic nor the Confederacy were actually the "good guys" even as if both of them saw themselves as such, they were merely differing shades of gray, again as he most correctly points out. When it comes to the movies the battle droids are at least considered somewhat of a threat considering that they were actually almost able to completely annihilate the Jedi taskforce at the Geonosis Arena by overruning them with sheer numbers and volume of blaster fire. The cartoon on the other hand reduces them to just, pardon my French, utter fucking retards completely unnecessarily.**

**The second part of his review that covers the main character and talks about the fact that ST-ED is more patient compared to Grievous is mostly owed to the fact that Grievous is implanted with a chip in his brain that increases his aggression levels significantly, which of course hinders his ability to properly think things through, ST-ED's calmness and effectiveness as a commander is simply owed to the fact that he is a cold, calculating and for the most part emotionless droid that has yet to grasp organic concepts such as empathy or rules of warfare, making him unpredictable and a dangerous opponent. The only real compassion he feels is for his fellow droids who are scrapped by the thousands if not millions every day on the fields of battle across the galaxy, this is because of his connection to the Droid Network that informs every droid connected to it if one of them is deactivated, scrapped or otherwise destroyed, making each of them "feel" the shutdown as if it happened to themselves.**

**Also, I personally don't feel Grievous is completely bigoted against droids just for the sake that they are droids, he's just had a pretty bad experience with them in combat compared to organic troops like his own Kaleesh warriors back when his body was fully intact. His opinion could change if the droids actually prove themselves worthy of his respect, like you saw in this chapter how he actually began to somewhat respect ST-ED as a capable commanding officer instead of just another tactical droid amongst others.**

**Also, as explained earlier plot armor is non-existant. Anyone but the main character can die if I feel the plot requires it, even CIS characters. The very reason that Plo Koon even survived the incident with Malevolence I feel was because of plot armor, if that didn't exist Grievous would have probably just sent some gunships or Vultures to destroy the remains of the last escape pod and the survivors along with it after the hunters failed at it and leaving nothing for Anakin and Ahsoka to even find afterwards.**

**On the third and final part, I'll just say that I won't spoil anything but here's how ST-ED views each of the mentioned characters in basic detail (I'll promise to cover this further in later chapters):**

**Ventress: Like Tann, seen as a member of a religious sect opposed to another sect (the Jedi) who both have differing views of a scientifically explainable phenomenon (The Force + Midichlorians) and choose to use that phenomenon in different ways, the other with restraint and other unrestrained. Also considered to be a good assassin after reviewing mission reports in greater detail.**

**Gunray and Poggle (along with most of the Separatist Council): Rich assholes who fund everything he does with certain restrictions, also seen as counterproductive and possibly replacable if they are considered to do more harm than good to the Confederacy's military effectiveness with their constant corner cutting when it comes to the quality of both the Confederate Navy and Army.**

**Phew…**

**That was one long-ass author's note but I felt that it had to be written to properly compensate for the effort that Byzantium put into writing that long of a review.**

**Again, thank you for taking the time to write your review, it is much appreciated and I expect more to come later on ****.**

**But for now…**

**This is MarxistFIN, signing out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**More Than Just A Clanker**

**A/N: It took me over two months to update this? Shieeeet. Not really sorry though I had other stories to write in addition to graduating from school (yay) so my hands were pretty full.**

**But that's all over now, I have plenty of time to write stories since its summer time (Provided I have the ideas and inspiration necessary to do so.)**

**Anyway, to respond to some reviews:**

**TCW: **

**Guest 1: "****Hello this is Q, I read your comment on how you don't like reviewer's leaving good comments and leaving it at that, so I will tell you this fanfic is really unique with your personal droid character I love how he changes the Clone Wars story line just by existing and changing certain events, again your fanfic is unique and I really like it. Q out."**

**It's not that I don't like reviewers leaving good comments. It simply gets tiring when people don't put any effort to provide any details about what they liked or criticism about mistakes (which I know there are plenty.). But I'll respect your wishes and won't discuss it further.**

**Goldspark1: "****read the bold text at the end and I agree wholeheartedly. Some of those characters stayed alive simply for plot convince. If it is not to much trouble, could you show more instances where ST-EDs intelligence and Ventress' organic thinking help them on their mission? They together really are a threat equal to sith and jedi."**

**I'm sorry to say but I think you've made a mistake with your names there, Ventress hasn't even been featured in this fic as anything other than a sidenote. You must be thinking of Sev'rance Tann who is a Chiss dark acolyte featured in the now non-canon EU game "Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds" Clone Wars expansion which added CIS and Republic factions to the game along with their campaigns. Tann was the main character of the CIS campaign and the only thing she has in common with Ventress is that they both are dark acolytes of Dooku.**

**And yes, I think I can show more instances of this pair kicking some Republic ass.**

**Now that we're done with that, onto the story itself.**

Chapter 8 – Storm Clouds Over Kamino

**Kamino System**

**Orbit of Kamino**

As the heavy-cruiser Malevolence came out of hyperspace it almost immediately crashed through the nearest Venator that was patrolling the orbit of Kamino, slightly depleting its own shields and crushing the smaller destroyer under its sheer mass and cutting the smaller Republic ship in half.

The star-destroyer blew up in a massive fireball as both the munitions and fuel supplies onboard it ignited, alerting the rest of the Republic fleet to the attacking Separatists and sending a clear message to the commanders of both fleets:

The battle of Kamino had officially begun…

'_Launch all fighters, charge the ion pulse cannon and aim it towards the rest of the Republic fleet.'_ ST-ED ordered his subordinates on the bridge as he observed the rest of the Republic ships turn towards the Separatist fleet that kept pouring into the system through hyperspace in increasing numbers. Count Dooku had contacted him one last time during the trip from Rishi System to remind him that failure at Kamino was not an option for it would help bring the war to a swifter end. The tactical droid was also informed that he would have reserves from the navy's 15th and 91st fleets ready for use if needed.

The odds were pretty much set in the Confederacy's favor, but the Republic still had the superior numbers when it came to ships and nearly all of their defensive fleet's vessels were at least destroyer-tonnage.

The numbers superiority though would be easily negated by the Malevolence's main armament, which had begun its charging sequence and the ship that wielded it began turning its starboard side to face the enemy fleet, giving it maximum firepower and a clear shot for the incoming enemy fleet to work its magic on.

'_Ion pulse cannon charged at 74.19 percent.'_

'_General, the Captors are moving in to land troops onto the surface.' _OOM-29 chimed in.

'_Good, take several of the frigates and make sure the carriers reach the capital city's vicinity intact.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

"ST-ED, I'll be going down to the surface and lead the ground battle there, can you handle things in space?" Sev'rance asked through the holocommunicator unit as OOM-29 exited the call.

"Affirmative, make your way to the main cloning facilities in the capital of Tipoca City, destroy everything you see and kill any clones you come across, our main objective is to cause as much damage as possible, so avoid staying there for too long unless we're told otherwise."

"Got it, anything else?"

"Not at the moment, good luck General Tann."

"And you as well, ST-ED."

And then the call was over.

ST-ED turned back towards the battle unfolding before him, just in time to see one of the Munificent-class frigates get its front section blown off as a torpedo managed to penetrate its shields.

'_Ion pulse cannon fully charged and ready to fire.'_

'_Target that group of Venators on our right and open fire.'_

'_Roger, roger. Final sequence… Firing weapon now.'_

Soon enough the large ion super weapon began its signature whine as it released its charge in a massive wave of ion energy, racing rapidly towards its targets who were scrambling to get out of the way, but failing as their shields and engines shut down, leaving them dead in space.

'_Order all nearby ships to concentrate fire on the crippled destroyers and re-charge the IPC.'_

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Kamino**

**Surface**

**Tipoca City**

**Landing Pad In Sector 12D**

Stepping out of the landing craft and straight into battle, Tann could see that the battle had already begun without her.

"General Tann, OOM-110 reporting in. I will be acting as your assistant for the duration of the ground campaign on Kamino."

"Excellent, what is the current situation? Have we made any progress?"

"Yes, ma'am. We've been able to capture several key bridges that connect the different facilities to each other. Many of the Republic forces are already in full retreat. Our fighters are still attempting to achieve air superiority over the Republic so any air support is currently out of the question."

"I can work with those odds, tell all troops to follow my lead we'll be taking the Republic positions at the other end of that bridge, our orders are to cause as much destruction as possible and we'll be able to do so best if we get inside the facilities." Tann ordered as she pointed towards the target position while activating her lightsaber after which she jumped over the hastily built barricade that protected the droid front line, deflecting the blue blaster bolts of her clone adversaries as she did so.

"Roger, roger." The command battle droid replied as he followed in his new commanding officer's wake, signaling the rest of the droid forces to do the same.

Several of the AATs and dwarf spider droids that acted as support gunners for the infantry also worked as mobile cover for them to advance with over the bridge leading to the next pad. The tactic worked quite well until several clones caught wind of the Confederate tactic and began targeting the larger droid units with their rocket launchers.

'_Take out those anti-armor units! Don't let them destroy our tanks!'_ OOM-110 ordered the squad of battle droid assassins as a tank next to him got hit in the area right under its turret where the ammo was stored in, causing the tank to go up in a huge fireball. The sharpshooters whose actions acted as a better response than words, began taking down the heavy clone troopers with skull-piercing shots that left large smoking holes in the helmets of most of the clones responsible for almost halting the Confederate advance right in its tracks.

"Forward! Show these clones that you are superior to them in every way!" Sev'rance encouraged her troops who got out from behind their cover and concentrated their fire on the nearest clone defenders.

Thanks to the upgrades that had been installed to them back on Raxus Prime, they were actually able to score multiple hits this time around and the Republic lines began to rapidly thin out. Even as their repeaters kept downing the invading droid forces by the dozens, the clones were simply outnumbered to the point that the enemy's casualties didn't matter.

The dark acolyte, with assistance from the force, easily jumped over the Republic defenses and began slaughtering any nearby clones with her crimson blade, slashing and hacking off limbs and heads, and even electrocuting a squad of clones along with their NCO with her force lightning ability and causing the white and olive-green painted troopers' eyes to burst out of their sockets and simply pop from the amount of unnatural electricity coursing through their bodies before they finally fell to the ground dead as smoke rose from their badly burnt bodies.

As the clones were distracted by the Sith causing chaos in their ranks, there was nothing stopping the droid tanks from smashing the barricade and the repeater behind it to pieces, followed by the infantry behind them.

"Kill them all!" Tann yelled as the mixture of battle droid types rapidly fired into the enemy ranks, slaughtering all clones who failed to get out of the kill zone.

Soon enough the GAR forces began to rout from the area, much to the relief of Tann who had already feared that she would be surrounded by the enemy forces prior to the arrival of her troops.

Unfortunately for the Confederate forces, the so-called "rout" was actually nothing more than a sham and the clones had simply gotten right outside of the blast radius of their artillery, which opened fire as soon as the last platoon of clones retreated from the platform.

It was too late that Sev'rance noticed the artillery rounds headed her way as she heard the telltale whine that was rapidly getting closer.

"Incoming!" One of the battle droids yelled in distress as everyone began scrambling to get out of the blast zone.

In the end though, the warning came too late…

In but a few moments, two hundred battle droids and dozens of vehicles and heavy droid units were obliterated by a combined barrage of two dozen artillery pieces, nothing was spared and after it was over, nothing but twitching and smoking husks remained of the once functional droid forces.

Sev'rance herself was flung several meters into the air by the force of one of the heavy plasma rounds exploding near her, her body slamming harshly against the wet ground, leaving her vulnerable and unconscious.

"General Tann…! General Tann! Are you alright?!" OOM-110 kept yelling out as hard as his vocabulators allowed him, he had lost his left arm after an artillery round landed right next to him, blowing the metal limb clean off.

He finally spotted the unconscious and tattered remains of his commanding officer next to a group of destroyed super battle droids and was about to go see if she was alright before being silenced by a sniper round to the chest that blew damaged some of his circuitry and caused him to fall to the ground with a smoking hole in his chest, unable to get up.

Minutes went by until finally his sensors picked up movement coming across the bridge, it was a Republic patrol that was looking for survivors, both Republic and Confederate ones.

Using his remaining arm, he crawled behind the husk of a destroyed Republic walker to observe and live record the actions of the clone troopers before him to the entire Network. What he, and many other droids saw, was nothing short of barbaric…

Two of the clones stood over a B1 battle droid that had had both of its legs blown off by one of the artillery rounds and was attempting to crawl towards safety before one of the clones put a boot on its back and ripped off one of its hands as the droid screamed in distress.

After removing the arm straight out of its socket, the clone proceeded to place his blaster on the back of the droid's head.

"Wait don't shoot! I surren-!" The droid yelled in desperation, it hadn't yet had time to upload its backup into the network and should it be killed now it would be dead for good.

The clone ignored the droid's distressed yelling and opted to put a blaster bolt through its head, ending the droid program's lifecycle for good.

"We don't take droids for prisoner." The clone said darkly as he began peeling off the mechanical fingers from the deceased droid's hand to collect them as trophies.

"Sarge, look at this!" The group's obvious rookie said in a slightly higher pitched voice as he lightly nudged the unconscious body of General Tann with his boot.

The olive-green painted squad leader went to check on his teammates' findings to see what he found so interesting.

"What have you got?" He said as he came around from behind one of the destroyed AATs.

"Looks to me like she's the Seppie commander, she had this with her." The younger private replied as he presented the dark acolyte's lightsaber to the NCO.

The sergeant took the lightsaber hilt in his hand, pushing the red button on the side to activate it, releasing the red blade of pure energy.

"This is a weapon that the Jedi wield, but I've never seen any of them with a red one like this." He said as he deactivated the blade and placed it in his backpack.

"What should we do with her?" The clone regular asked as he turned his gaze back towards the Chiss.

"Take her with us, she'll be a valuable prisoner if we need a bargaining chip for a prisoner exchange."

"Yes, sir." The private said as he gestured for one of his comrades to come and help him carry the unconscious enemy commander's body.

As the clones got ready to leave, OOM-110 contacted General ST-ED through the network.

"_Sir… we have a problem…"_

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Red Circle Fleet**

**Negotiator**

**Bridge**

"We'll be coming out of hyperspace shortly, judging from the comm. chatter it's like hell down there." Cody explained to everyone assembled around the briefing table.

"What do we know of their numbers?" Obi-Wan queried.

"Hard to say, we have mixed reports from both the ground and space but one thing is definitively sure, the Malevolence is at Kamino."

"Well it's official then, he's here." Anakin said keeping his gaze aimed at the holographic presentation of the Kamino system.

"I'm afraid so, we'll have to tread carefully when we're facing the Separatist super-ship. Its main weapon can take out any of our ships with just one shot if it so wishes."

"Our more nimble vessels should be fast enough to outrun it." Ahsoka chimed in.

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

"The corvettes are suitable for working as a distraction since they are the fastest ships we have, they'll run circles around the Malevolence so it will discharge its ion cannon in an effort to take them down. While its main armament is recharging we move in with the rest of the fleet."

"The bombers should be able to bypass its shielding so we won't even have to worry about taking them down. Good thinking Snips." Anakin said while smiling at his Padawan.

"Well… I aim to impress." Ahsoka replied jokingly.

"You two better get to the hangar bay." Obi-Wan cut in "We'll be arriving to Kamino any minute now and everything needs to be ready when we get there."

"Agreed. Come on, Snips." Anakin said, gesturing for his Padawan to follow.

"Right behind you, Skyguy."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Tipoca City**

**Military Wing**

'_Fire in the hole.'_ B1T-D3D said calmly as he pressed down on the detonation trigger of the thermal charges, blowing the ventilation duct's cover right off its hinges and down to the raging ocean below.

'_B91-K8P, you're on point.'_ He ordered one of his fellow commando droids who nodded and began climbing up the walls of the shaft and into the complex above them soon followed by the rest of the commando droid strike team.

'_Be quick with extracting General Tann, we're blowing up the support structures in 26 minutes and it would be a shame if you were to be scrapped because you were too slow.'_ D89-X3D informed the commando droid team as his own team was setting up baradium charges on the large support beams that kept the capital city afloat.

'_No need to worry, we'll be back before you know it.'_ The commando droid captain replied lightheartedly as he crawled inside the shaft, already seeing the light seeping through the cracks of the target exit's ventilation cover from behind the corner.

Meanwhile, B91-K8P carefully opened the cover and landed inside the dark storage room before wordlessly giving the all-clear signal to the rest of his team.

'_We'll inform you once we're ready, Team 1 out.' _B1T-D3D said before cutting off the connection.

'_The door is locked, but the security software is quite sloppy. I'll be able get us into the main facility… now.'_ B91-K8P reported as the cramped storage room's door swung open.

The droids went stiff for a moment as they noticed that the clones that were standing in guard right in front of the door, still fortunately oblivious that the door right next to them had seemingly opened up on its own.

'_They haven't noticed us yet, take them down… quietly.' _The droid officer said as he highlighted the clone troopers on everyone's display.

Everyone acknowledged and without making the slightest of noise they took out their vibroblades and snuck up behind the unlucky guards, stabbing their blades right through the soft throat plating of their armor, careful not to stain the floor with their victim's blood so as to not to arouse any suspicion.

After the unfortunate Jango imitations fell limp, their bodies were dragged inside the storage room and hidden inside one of the many containers used to store the city's food supplies.

'_K54-9S1, check the panel over there and see if you can hack into the security systems and find out where General Tann is being kept.'_ B1T-D3D ordered one of the other droids who quickly complied and went to check what he could find out from the systems.

'_The main database and communications network seem to be pretty well secured compared to the door, it will take me a few minutes. Cover me while I try to get us a way inside.'_

'_You heard him, defensive positions! Nothing that has Republic colors goes through here!'_ The droid captain ordered as some of the storage crates were dragged in from the room next to them.

Just as they finished setting up the first crates a Republic patrol came in from around one of the hallways.

"Clankers at twelve o' clock! Take them down!" The NCO leading the clone squad shouted as he pointed his blaster towards the opposing commando droids who quickly abandoned setting up more defenses and quickly got behind the crates that were already there.

'_Heavy enemy fire on this side, I'm counting at least a full squad of regulars.'_ B91 informed the rest as he and the three fellow squad mates returned fire on the adversary, scoring several hits and downing one of the attacking clone troopers by landing a blaster bolt to his chest and going straight through his weak armor plating and finishing him off with a second hit to the face after he fell on his knees, causing his head to jerk back slightly before falling onto his stomach.

"Erm is down!" One of the clones shouted in a slightly panicked voice.

"Take this you kriffing tinnie bastards!" Another one furiously shouted as he threw a detonator towards the droid defenses just before he too was felled by the accurate shots of the commando droids in the open hallway with no real cover to speak of. The explosive itself fell short of its target and exploded harmlessly in front of the heavy supply crates causing no real damage to the droids it was supposed to be targeted towards.

"Sir, we're getting slaughtered out here, what are your orders!?" The clone from before asked the olive-green armored NCO who looked around frantically as the remains of his squad were rapidly thinning in numbers by the impossibly accurate fire of the opposing droids.

"Retreat! We'll come back with reinforcements!

"Yes, sir! Everyone, fall back!"

As the remaining clones retreated back behind the corner the droids began changing their weapons' power cells after almost completely depleting their current ones in the previous firefight.

'_What's our progress with General Tann's location?' _B1T-D3D asked his subordinate who stood up from in front of the panel and picked up his E-5 from the floor

'_I was about to say that I was already finished when the battle started but I didn't want to interrupt your little fun.'_ K54 said with amusement. _'Anyway, I'm uploading the schematics to everyone now. I think it would be best if you looked them over.'_

As the other droids silently examined the layout of the facility, they noticed that they were actually quite close to their target from where they currently were.

'_Interesting, according to this General Tann shouldn't actually be too far away from our current location. In addition we still have plenty of time before extraction.'_ B91 commented.

'_What are you suggesting?'_ B1T-D3D asked him.

'_We are here to do as much damage as we can, correct? I suggest we use the extra time we have to cause havoc to the city's infrastructure and distrupt the Republic's fighting effort, temperature control, access ways, and air ventilation. We can even disrupt their evacuation if we want to by destroying some if not all the aircraft in the hangar bays.'_

'_I like the way you think…' _The squad's CO agreed with a small amount of glee. _'02I-P94 and I will go to the detention area while the rest of you spread out and cause havoc. Kill anyone who isn't affiliated with the Confederacy.'_

'_Roger, roger.'_

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Back in Orbit**

**OOM-29's Lucrehulk-Class DCS "Mirage"**

'_A Republic fleet just arrived into the system; more ships are still jumping in. According to our current data all of the ships are from the Republic's Open Circle Armada which is under the command of Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.' _One of the pilot droid console operators in the CCC reported to OOM-29.

The command droid in question had an increasing sense of dread as he observed more and more hostile ships jump into the system from hyperspace.

'_What about our reserves, what is their situation?'_

'_They are headed our way but it'll take time before they're here. According their own calculations… at least five more minutes.'_

'_Alert! Enemy ships are launching fighters!'_

'_Send our vultures in to intercept!'_

'_We can't they are already occupied with the remaining enemy defenders, several Diamond-class vessels are still available though and are waiting orders.'_

'_Order them to target the enemy fighters and bombers, protect the flagship at all costs!'_

'_Roger, roger. Diamonds are moving in to intercept formation… they have engaged the enemy fighter formation. Alert! Enemy formation is breaking up!'_

OOM-29 felt a slight amount of relief until he remembered that there was still an entire enemy fleet approaching their position with dozens of ships ready for battle.

'_Take what vessels are currently available and form up around the Malevolence, you need to hold the line until our troops on the ground can finish their mission.' _ST-ED sent a general order to the whole fleet, which was received by several frigates and destroyers who disengaged from the current battle with the defense fleet's remnants and began to head towards the newly arrived Republic reinforcements.

'_Where are you going, sir?'_ OOM-29 asked.

'_To help evacuate General Tann.'_

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"I've got vultures on my tail, I can't shake 'em!" One of the clones of Gold squadron shouted as the two droid fighters closed in on his position, their shots coming uncomfortably close to hitting his engines.

"I see 'em, hold on gold two." Ahsoka assured the panicking clone pilot as she aligned her Delta-7's weapon sights onto the leading droid spacecraft and squeezed the trigger, destroying her target in just a few bursts and causing the second fighter to abandon its pursuit to avoid being destroyed by the debris.

"Much appreciated ma'am, I thought I was done for there."

"All in a day's work trooper."

"Ahsoka, form up on me we're heading for the surface."

"Why, wouldn't we be more useful up here?"

"I just received intel from the local garrison that Separatist commandos have infiltrated the cloning facilities and they need our help in hunting them down before they can seriously damage anything vital."

"I understand master, lead the way."

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**Rishi**

**General Grievous' Mobile HQ**

"Our attack is proceeding as planned, general. So far, we have suffered minimal casualties against the local Republic garrison." The tactical droid TK-99 informed his superior who was hunched over the projection of the map of the surrounding area.

"Good, is our artillery in position?" Grievous said without taking his gaze of the display.

"Yes, sir. They're waiting for your orders."

"Order them to begin their bombardment at the designated co-ordinates, fire at will!"

"Acknowledged." TK-99 replied as it relayed the orders to the artillery batteries stationed on the hill overlooking the field where the battle between the droids and Republic troops supported by the local resistance. The droids operating the guns acknowledged their orders and began adjusting the angle of their weapons so that the rounds would land right on top of the columns of Republic walkers that were currently attempting to break through the Confederate lines with the support of their infantry.

Grievous observed through one of the screens on his left that was sending in constant visual feed of the combat as the heavy artillery rounds began landing into the midst of the Republic formations that tried to scatter and get out of the way.

Soon he noticed movement near one of the destroyed AT-TE walkers and was filled with excitement as he saw a form dressed in Jedi robes climb out through the destroyed walker's top hatch with lightsaber in hand.

"Jedi…" He muttered as he began stomping out of the command center and towards the exit hatch of the mobile HQ.

"General, where are you going?"

"To hunt Jedi, you're in charge of coordinating our forces until I get back."

"Acknowledged." TK-99 said with a nod as he watched his superior jump out of the exit hatch in the walking command hub's back.

After landing safely onto the dirt ground, the former Kaleesh warlord began sprinting towards his intended target as fast as his cybernetic legs could carry him, finding the Jedi in the heat of battle and leading the clones towards the droid position.

The Jedi leading the GAR forces was a tan female Devaronian who was using her green lightsaber to skillfully deflect the incoming blaster bolts and cut down any Confederate resistance in front of her.

No mercy was shown to any unfortunate droids who got into her way, even as they attempted to run away from her they were pulled back by her force powers and sliced into pieces by the searing heat of her blade.

"Hold your positions fools! I'll deal with this Jedi slime… personally!" Grievous shouted to his troops who stopped their sudden retreat and turned their weapons back towards the advancing clone troops.

Soon after igniting two of his lightsabers Grievous and his Jedi opponent began exchanging blows with each other, sparks flew as the blades of pure energy rapidly collided with each other in a deadly dance where every millisecond of reaction time was critical.

There were no words exchanged between the two combatants, the only form of communication were their body movements and the varying forms of facial expressions they gave to each other in the midst of battle.

Grievous was hardly impressed by the fighting skills of his opponent whose force powers were not enough to compensate for her unrefined lightsaber dueling technique, which showed in the fact that she was never able to go onto the offensive and was putting all her effort into deflecting the increasingly powerful blows of her opponent so she wouldn't end up being a head shorter.

"Getting tired, Jedi? Here let me help with that!" Grievous said mockingly as he found an opening in his opponent's defense and took it, slicing off his opponent's left leg from the knee downwards and causing her to stumble onto her back in pain and drop her lightsaber.

Grievous proceeded to grab his opponent by the throat with one of his extra appendages and hoisting her into the air.

"Do you see now Jedi? You cannot possibly hope to win this battle, your corrupt Republic will fall under the onslaught of our droid army and there is nothing you can do stop it…" Grievous said as he placed one of his lightsabers next to his opponent's face who was struggling to breath.

"You… you're wrong…" The Devaronian said with a weak voice as she felt her consciousness fade. "You may take Rishi, but thousands of other planets will still rise to take its place in the fight against Separatist tyranny. Kill me if you must, but know that your cause is one doomed to fa…" The defiant Jedi was never able to finish her sentence as Grievous cut off her head clean off and raised it in front of his face.

"You Jedi talk too much." He said as he tossed the head over his shoulder and went to collect his newly deceased opponent's lightsaber from the ground and placing it onto the magnetic belt on his duranium hips.

As Grievous looked towards the field of battle again he noticed the Republic forces were already retreating, the droid reinforcements which were supported by MAFs and squadrons of Hyena bombers obliterated their structure of battle and caused them to rout aimlessly to avoid being completely annihilated.

"General, the Republic forces are in full retreat. Should we pursue?" TK-99 asked Grievous through his comm. link.

"No, let the Republic run. They don't have the numbers to mount any further attacks against us. Rishi will be under the Confederacy's control in but a matter of hours. As soon as you have the location of their remaining forces launch an orbital bombardment on their position, we have no need for survivors."

"Acknowledged."

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**Back on Mustafar**

"Die you Republic dogs!" The last battle droid defending the entrance to the hangar bay shouted defiantly before its head got blown clean off by Rig's stolen E-5 Blaster's shotgun function.

"Our ticket out of here should be right behind these doors, this place houses all the transport craft used to ship the finished goods out of the system." Funn said as he checked the information from the datapad he was still carrying with him.

"Okay team, get into position we're breaching this door." Rig said as he took position on the right side of the door, the others forming up both behind him and opposite of him.

Counting down his fingers from an open hand before forming a fist, he opened the door to allow the others inside Kess leading the charge as the pointman.

There wasn't much resistance from the Confederates considering most of the droids in the hangar bay were laborers and not battle droids, but all of them were taken out regardless so they wouldn't alert the rest.

"Okay, so anyone here know how to fly one of these things?"

"I'm a pilot I'll do it." Kess said as he climbed up the open ramp of the Separatist freighter, the others following in his wake.

Sitting down onto the pilot's seat, he waited until everyone was onboard before closing the ramp and began prepping the vessel for takeoff.

And the group made it just in time as the hangar bay doors opened to reveal a patrol of B1 battle droids, one of which was armed with an E60R missile launcher.

"Hey, that one's not yet authorized for takeoff!" The red security battle droid NCO leading the squad shouted as his squad sprinted into the hangar bay guns blazing.

"Damnit, we've been spotted. Does this thing have any weapons!" Funn asked Kess who had to put all his skill and knowledge of piloting into use as to not get blown up by the missiles soaring past the freighter in the cramped hangar bay.

"It's a supply freighter not a gunship, what do you think!? It only has a few light anti-fighter weapons to ward off pirates!" his friend responded as he pushed the ship's engines to their limits while attempting to reach the exit, which was steadily closing up.

"Everybody hang on! This is gonna be close!" Kess said as he barely squeezed the medium-sized supply freighter through the gap of the closing blast doors, sparks flying as the sides of the vessel screeched against the doors.

And then they did it, they got outside of the facility.

"Alright we are outside, but we are not out of the woods yet. There's still a seppie fleet guarding the planet's orbit and they will have no doubt been alerted of our actions, get on the guns and be ready to keep their fighter off of us until we can reach hyperspace." Rig ordered as the cheering inside the cockpit died down and everyone got to work on getting the vessel ready for battle.

'This is it, if we can just get through the Seppie blockade we'll all go home in one piece.' Rig thought as he sat down in front of the navigations console, coldly calculating their chances of survival in the coming battle.

The odds seemed stacked against them no matter how he looked at it, but he didn't want to destroy the morale after it had just been at its highest in months.

As the black swarm of droid fighters got closer and closer he had only one thought on his mind.

'It's do or die, and I don't plan on dying today…'

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**A/N: Yes, that's a cliffhanger. Bring on the rage.**

**So Sev'rance is a prisoner of war and ST-ED seems to be heading to a duel he seems unlikely to have a chance of winning on his own. A sticky situation to say the least, wouldn't you agree?**

**But, what happens next chapter? Will B1T-D3D's commando team succeed in their mission and retrieve their General? Can ST-ED's intelligence outsmart two dangerous, lightsaber-wielding Jedi? Will the clones manage to get off Mustafar in one piece?**

**Find out all of this and many more in Chapter 9 of More Than Just A Clanker.**

**For now, this is MarxistFIN. Signing out.**


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